"We are in Afghanistan to confront a common enemy that threatens the United States, our friends and allies, and the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan who have suffered the most at the hands of violent extremists,".
VOA: standard.2009.03.27
And you know, the truth ofthe matter is we can argue about whether helping the Afghan people get rid of that enemy, commonenemy, was an important part of that larger strategy that I was talking about, that did have a material effect on the ability ofthe regime in Moscow to hold onto power.