events 2008

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice  [(c) AP Images]

Secretary Rice Speaks About Strategic Opportunities in Afghanistan

April 14, 2008

"The Taliban’s theory of victory is...simply to undermine the elected Afghan government, fracture the international coalition, and outlast us.... But we will render the Taliban obsolete by supporting an effective, democratic Afghan state that can meet the needs of its people.... Our strategy directs resources toward the central pillars of counterinsurgency: protecting the people from the enemy by strengthening Afghan security institutions, connecting people to their government by improving governance and rule of law, and fueling economic and social opportunity through reconstruction and development.
…
That is the spirit with which we must meet this new historic transition and transformation because challenges like the ones that we faced at the end of World War II and the ones that we face now can only be overcome with optimism about the power of our principles and our values. And so, as I sat at NATO next to permanent representatives from Poland and the Czech Republic and Hungary and the Baltic states in Latvia in 2006, I thought, had someone said there will be a NATO summit in Latvia in 2006, in 1946, people would have thought that they had lost their minds.”

To read the complete speach please click here.