Afghanistan Quotes - Page 19

• The good terrorists are the guys who bomb and kill Indians. The bad terrorists are the ones who attack Pakistani interests, whether in Afghanistan or Pakistan. In other words, you blow up the Taj Mahal Hotel, you are a good guy. You blow up the Marriott in Islamabad, you are a bad guy.

  Shashi Tharoor

  Blow, Guy, Taj Mahal

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• Military strikes on Afghanistan will not prevent something this terrible from happening again, for the simple reason that bombs will not deter people who are unafraid of death and desire martyrdom.

  Jemima Khan

  Military, Simple, People

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• The Army might screw you and your girlfriend might dump you and the enemy might kill you, but the shared commitment to safeguard one another’s lives is unnegotiable and only deepens with time. The willingness to die for another person is a form of love that even religions fail to inspire, and the experience of it changes a person profoundly.

  Sebastian Junger

  Girlfriend, Commitment, Army

  "Failing the Voight-Kampff" by Dylan Ratigan, www.huffingtonpost.com. October 28, 2013.

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• [I]f you think that American imperialism and its globalised, capitalist form is the most dangerous thing in the world, that means you don't think the Islamic Republic of Iran or North Korea or the Taliban is as bad.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Islamic, Mean, Thinking

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• The sad end he met in Afghanistan was more accurately a function of his stubborn idealism - his insistence on trying to do the right thing. In which case it wasn't a tragic flaw that brought Tillman down, but a tragic virtue.

  Jon Krakauer

  Trying, Stubborn, Flaws

  "Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman". Book by Jon Krakauer, 2009.

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• Barack Obama's life was so much simpler in 2009. Back then, he had refined the cold act of blaming others for the bad economy into an art form. Deficits? Blame Bush's tax cuts. Spending? Blame the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. No business investment? Blame Wall Street.

  John Sununu

  Art, Wall, War

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• I didn't know Michael Hastings very well, but one thing about him was always obvious - he was born to be in the news business, he loved it, he was made for it. He wrote about Iraq and Afghanistan as places he had always been destined to visit.

  Matt Taibbi

  Iraq, News, Born

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• I'm saying 9/11 was to get us into Iraq and get us into Afghanistan.

  Jesse Ventura

  Iraq

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• I was distressed that after 9/11, when the United States was attacked by terrorists, the United States' response was to attack Afghanistan, where some of the terrorists had been.

  Alice Walker

  United States, Terrorist, Response

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• It was only a smile, nothing more. It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make ANYTHING all right. Only a smile. A tiny thing. A leaf in the woods, shaking in the wake of a startled bird's flight. But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting. - Amir

  Khaled Hosseini

  Spring, Snow, Bird

  Khaled Hosseini (2010). “The Complete Khaled Hosseini: Digital box set”, p.168, A&C Black

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• I've learned that terror doesn't happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren't being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death.

  Greg Mortenson

  Children, Hate, People

  Greg Mortenson, David Oliver Relin (2009). “Three Cups of Tea: Young Readers Edition: One Man's Journey to Change the World... One Child at a Time”, p.138, Penguin

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• In the time that we're here today, more women and children will die violently in the Darfur region than in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel or Lebanon. So, after September 30, you won't need the UN - you will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and headstones.

  George Clooney

  Children, Men, Israel

  United Nations Security Council Address on Darfur, delivered 14 September 2006, New York City

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• We don't make bicycles anymore. It's all human relations now. The eggheads sit around trying to figure out new ways for everyone to be happy. Nobody can get fired, no matter what; and if somebody does accidentally make a bicycle, the union accuses us of cruel and inhuman practices and the government confiscates the bicycle for back taxes and gives it to a blind man in Afghanistan.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Men, Practice, Giving

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• Hassan and I looked at each other. Cracked up. The Hindi kid would soon learn what the British learned earlier in the century, and what the Russians would eventually learn by the late 1980's: that Afghans are an independent people. Afghans cherish customs but abhor rules. And so it was with kite fighting. The rules were simple: No rules. Fly your kite. Cut the opponents. Good luck.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Kids, Independent, Good Luck

  Khaled Hosseini (2011). “The Kite Runner: Rejacketed”, p.45, A&C Black

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• I brought Hassan’s son from Afghanistan to America, lifting him from the certainty of turmoil and dropping him in a turmoil of uncertainty

  Khaled Hosseini

  Son, America, Hassan

  Khaled Hosseini (2010). “The Complete Khaled Hosseini: Digital box set”, p.162, A&C Black

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• The budgetary cost to the UK of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through 2010 will total more than £18 billion. If we include the social costs the total impact will exceed £20 billion.

  Joseph Stiglitz

  War, Impact, Iraq

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• Baba dropped the stack of food stamps on her desk. "Thank you but I don't want," Baba said. "I work always. In Afghanistan I work, in America I work. Thank you very much, Mrs. Dobbins, but I don't like it free money."...Baba walked out of the welfare office like a man cured of a tumor.

  Khaled Hosseini

  Men, America, Office

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• War is life multiplied by some number that no one has ever heard of.

  Sebastian Junger

  Veterans Day, Military, War

  "War". Book by Sebastian Junger, www.hoover.org. 2010.

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• I'm no military expert, and these figures might not be exactly right,' I said. 'But as best I can tell, we've launched 114 Tomahawk cruise missiles into Afghanistan so far. Now take the cost of one of those missiles, tipped with a Raytheon guidance system, which I think is about $840,000. For that much money, you could build dozens of schools that could provide tens of thousands of students with a balanced, non extremist education over the course of a generation. Which do you think will make us more secure?

  Greg Mortenson

  Military, School, Thinking

  Greg Mortenson (2009). “Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Education in Afghanistan and Pakistan”, p.178, Penguin

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• Because of you, in Afghanistan we've broken the momentum of the Taliban. Because of you, we've begun a transition to the Afghans that will allow us to bring our troops home from there. And around the globe, as we draw down in Iraq, we have gone after al Qaeda so that terrorists who threaten America will have no safe haven, and Osama bin Laden will never again walk the face of this Earth.

  Barack Obama

  War, Home, Safe Haven

  Obama's Speech to Troops at Fort Bragg, www.nytimes.com. December 14, 2011.

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• The attacks of 9/11 came out of Afghanistan. It was a failed state, a rogue nation. That's why al Qaeda was there in the first place.

  Sebastian Junger

  Als, Rogues, Firsts

  "Journalist Sebastian Junger". "Tavis Smiley", www.pbs.org. June 10, 2011.

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• For those 10 months back in Afghanistan after university, I felt I had no rights. It felt like I didn't exist. It was like I was their doll, and I was lost, somehow. My sister's husband brought me to an art gallery. It had a big effect on me.

  Malina Suliman

  Art, Husband, Rights

  "Afghan graffiti artist risks her life to challenge the burqa under the Taliban". Interview with Katie Booth, womenintheworld.com. May 21, 2015.

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• We dont want the Taliban to put down roots, or the al Qaeda to put down roots in Afghanistan that can facilitate Afghanistan becoming - once again - a launching pad for international terrorism.

  John R. Allen

  Roots, Want, Als

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• Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries on earth. Security issue or no security issue, there would need to be a focus on it.

  Helen Clark

  Country, Issues, Focus

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• There is a direct line relationship between what happened in Afghanistan in the work up to 11 September 2001 and what we're doing in Afghanistan today.

  John R. Allen

  Lines, Today, September

  "Gen. Allen: Afghan relations bruised, not broken". Interview with Charlie Rose, www.cbsnews.com. April 4, 2012.

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