Richard Holbrooke: “In a country of 180 million people, the education system must be reformed by the country itself.”

We have ended poppy eradication, a radical change, because all we were doing by eradicating poppy seeds--poppy crops--was driving farmers--poor farmers--into the hands of the Taliban.

What happened in 1989, when the Soviets left and the world, led by the United States, just turned its back on Afghanistan... is a lesson of history we cannot afford to repeat.

There's no Ho Chi Minh. There's no Slobodan Milosevic. There's no Palestinian Authority.

You've got to end this war in Afghanistan.