President Bush, Nov. 24, 2003:
“Working with a fine coalition, our military went to Afghanistan, destroyed the training camps of al Qaeda, and put the Taliban out of business forever…(Applause.)”
National Security advisor Stephen Hadley, June 29, 2005:
“[T]he Taliban is making ‘one last stand’,” ThinkProgress quotes Hadley saying as Taliban violence spikes in Afghanistan. Here’s Hadley on PBS’s NewsHour last night:
[W]hat we know and what we believe is that the Taliban forces in Afghanistan were really set back by the presidential election … and are trying to regroup and trying to stay relevant and trying to derail the elections … scheduled for September. [R]egrettably, we’re going to probably see continuation of violence as they try and make one last stand to try and derail the progress of democracy there.
Thanks to JPol for the Bush quote.
