While the political uncertainty has prevailed since the August 20 poll, the Taliban-led insurgency continues to undermine international efforts to bring stability to Afghanistan eight years after the U.S.-led coalition launched the anti-Taliban offensive.

VOA: standard.2009.10.07

"A decision that I consider to be not only be unwise, but in fact based on a refusal to face the fact that what we are involved with here is a war with people who follow a religiously-based ideology that calls on them to kill us,and to return instead to the mindset that prevailed before September 11,2001,".

VOA: standard.2009.11.25