Afghanistan Time
U.S. First Lady Laura Bush's Trip to Afghanistan
MS. PONTICELLI: We love all of you and it's really just a great pleasure for me to meet with you this afternoon. I really do feel like I'm surrounded by so many friends, and colleagues and, more importantly, by those of us who have worked in the trenches together. We have put so much of our effort and our time and our commitment to the cause of the women of Afghanistan. And that, of course, is what I'm going to talk about today because I just had the incredible thrill of being in Afghanistan for two weeks. I'm just back, I guess, a little over a week. It's hard to believe. I feel like I've left a big part of my heart there, as I always feel when I come back from Afghanistan. ... [Read More]
Joint Declaration of the United States-Afghanistan Strategic Partnership
Since the fall of the Taliban regime in December 2001, the United States and Afghanistan have made great progress in the pursuit of common strategic objectives. Together we have disrupted international terrorist networks and worked to ensure that Afghanistan will never again be a safe haven for terrorists. The United States has supported the Afghan people as they have established a moderate, representative government. During this time, the U.S. Government and the American people have demonstrated a commitment to an Afghanistan that is democratic, free, and able to provide for its own security. ... [Read More]
Afghanistan
"For hundreds of years, the people of the world met in Afghanistan. Traders bought the essentials and the luxuries of their nations. Ideas ebbed and flowed from one side of the world to the other -- north and south, east and west. Civilizations and religions gave to each other and fought each other in bloody wars. Let us meet again now in Afghanistan. This time, let us help the Afghans in their search for a stable and prosperous future. Let us build on the richness of Afghanistan's past. Let us a build a new history that will protect and ennoble us all." -- Secretary Powell ... [Read More]
Southwest Asia
General political and economic circumstances in Afghanistan have improved since January 2004, but the narcotics situation continues to worsen, despite positive steps taken by both the government and international donors. Dangerous security conditions make implementing counternarcotics (CN) programs difficult and present a substantial obstacle to both poppy eradication efforts by the national government and to international efforts to provide related assistance. As a result of the profound destruction and disruption of normal life brought about by more than 25 years of conflict, the lack of legitimate income streams, and the limited enforcement capacity of the national government, the area devoted to poppy cultivation in 2004 set a new record at 206,700 hectares, more than three-times the area devoted to poppy last year. Opium gum production of 4950 metric tons in Afghanistan dwarfed opium gum production in second-place Burma (292 metric tons) by a factor of almo ... [Read More]
Afghanistan
U.S. Department of State [Read More]
Interview With Neda Farhat of Radio Liberty and Radio Afghanistan
SECRETARY RICE: We have not yet determined what we would do in terms our programs here but we are committed to a long-term relationship, whatever that might mean. And we understand that it was not a good thing the last time when the Soviet Union left, the United States did not stay by the Afghan people. This time the Afghan people could be certain that they'll have friends and partners for a long time to come.MS. FARHAT: OK, it’s your first trip in Afghanistan. How do you find Afghanistan and -- what do you think -- what challenges do you think the Afghan government and the United States is facing here in Afghanistan? SECRETARY RICE: I think Afghanistan is incredibly energetic and vibrant. I was saying to people in the car, all of the shops along the way, the shopkeepers who are selling things and producing things, the Afghan people obviously have a tremendous challenge after 25 years of civil war. To build a strong and stable econom ... [Read More]
Nomination to be Ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan
Opponents who previously settled scores through violent confrontation faced off at the ballot box in October 2004 for presidential elections, an unprecedented success for a country torn apart from three decades of conflict. Karzai’s subsequent appointment of a qualified, multi-ethnic cabinet further demonstrated that Afghanistan is entering a new time with possibilities for stability and democracy that can ensure a better future for the people of this long suffering land. ... [Read More]
Afghanistan
June 09, 2005 This Travel Warning provides updated information on the security situation in Afghanistan. The security threat to all American citizens in Afghanistan remains critical. This Travel Warning supersedes the Travel Warning for Afghanistan issued November 11, 2004. The Department of State strongly warns U.S. citizens against travel to Afghanistan. There is an ongoing threat to kidnap and assassinate U.S. citizens and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) wor ... [Read More]
Afghanistan (04/05)
In the 1960s, the United States helped build a highway connecting Afghanistan’s two largest cities. It began in Kabul and wound its way through five of the country’s core provinces—skirting scores of isolated and otherwise inaccessible villages; passing through the ancient market city of Ghazni; descending through Qalat; and eventually reaching Kandahar, founded by Alexander the Great. More than 35% of the country’s population lives within 50 kilometers of this highway, called, appropriately, modern Afghanistan’s lifeline. In 1978, the Soviet Union invaded. By the time its forces withdrew more than a decade later, more than 1 million Afghans had been killed and 5 million had fled. Civil war followed. The Taliban emerged, controlling all but the remote, northern regions. Afghanistan was terrorized by this group, which was dogmatically opposed to progress and democracy. More than two decades of war had left the Kabul-Kandahar highway devastated, like much of the country’s infrastructure. ... [Read More]
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