Don't look only at the foreigner, |
For the millions of Afghans who turned out to vote, this was a significant ... advance on the road to democracy, ... Four years ago, the Taliban were here and women were being stoned to death ... and now you have women running polling centers and women voting. |
I do not at this point know absolutely if it is true, but it may well be. If it is true, it is disgusting and contrary to our values and to our laws. I know that my military colleagues are taking it extremely seriously and there will be a very full and complete investigation. |
I don't think that any election is perfect, ... historic milestone in Afghan history. |
I have absolutely no doubt we will maintain the United States and allied military capabilities to confront any challenge. |
I think this is a [security] situation that will probably be difficult for some time. |
If you're going to go down this path of encouraging democracy, then to a very large extent you just suck it up. |
In America, only half of the people vote, ... If people are getting a little more used to elections, then maybe Afghanistan is turning into a normal country. |
It would be useful to lay down an internationally agreed set of goals, benchmarks. |
It's very clear the international community is still solidly here and the next piece we have to do is to try to, in a post-Bonn conference, define a little more sharply what the steps need to be, |
Pakistan is doing a lot more than they were doing, ... They have put thousands of troops on the border. ... I think this is a considerable effort. It is going in the right direction. |
significant ... advance on the road to democracy. |
The international community is going to have to stay involved for a long time, |
There are people who will try to kill candidates and who will try to stop the election, ... They will fail. They have absolutely no chance of stopping this election. |
There is certainly more violence and there are violent elements trying to come back, ... I think this is a situation that will probably be difficult for some time. |