Richard Holbrooke: “There's no Ho Chi Minh. There's no Slobodan Milosevic. There's no Palestinian Authority.”

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.

I share your astonishment that so little was done on this in the past, and I want to commend you and Senator Webb for continuing to push.

We assess that it is on track to improve security, transparency, and accountability for the upcoming parliamentary elections.

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.