John Kerry actually said...
We went into Afghanistan to hunt down al Qaeda and to replace the Taliban rulers because they refused, at that time, to break with al Qaeda and because they harbored those al Qaeda leaders with a legitimate government strong enough--our purpose in going in was to create a government strong enough to avoid the destabilization of a vital and volatile area.
Context
Kerry explains the rationale behind the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan.
03/25/2009