Rahm Emanuel, October 18, 2009:
What will the Afghan government do or not do? Where are we on the police training? Who would be better doing the police training? Could that be something the Europeans do? Should we take the military's side?
Those are questions that have not been asked. And before you commit troops that are -- not irreversible, but puts you down a certain path -- before you make that decision, there is a set of questions that have to have answers that is never been asked. And it's clear after eight years of war that is basically starting from beginning that those questions never got asked.
Washington Post, October 9, 2008
Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute, President Bush's senior adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan, has told Pentagon, intelligence and State Department officials to return to the basic questions: What are our objectives in Afghanistan? What can we hope to achieve? What are our resources? What is our allies' role? What do we know about the enemy? How likely is it that weak Afghan and Pakistani governments will rise to the occasion?
