"And that is why I will accept this award - as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the common challenges of the 21st century,"

VOA: standard.2009.12.10

If they can organize as well in Yemen or Somalia or someplace else, then why fight in Afghanistan where no one has been successful for millennia?" U.S.public-opinion surveys show declining support for the war in Afghanistan.

VOA: standard.2009.11.23

"In Europe and also here increasingly in the U.S., they are talking as if we had basically lost it and the main question was talking to the Taliban and settling to some degree on their terms, whereas we still have not tried - and I think it would be worth trying for a year, at least,or two - to address the causes as to why the Taliban has become relatively popular, or at least relatively accepted,"

VOA: standard.2009.03.11