Afghanistan

We didn't even have a real headquarters on the ground for a period of time. We over-learned a lesson of Bosnia, which has never planned a division flag because it's really hard to get out. Had we been able to exploit that period of relative peace in Afghanistan, which extended for many years, staff officers inside Kabul were driving themselves around in thin-skinned FIS. There was virtually no threat at that time. It was just starting to materialize as the Taliban were putting their foot in the water again in Afghanistan from Pakistan. The idea that we would have taken down al Qaeda and then just disappeared, al Qaeda would have returned in a heartbeat.