Top 60 Afghan Quotes

The jury is out as to whether the Afghans are up to the task of protecting their people.

As the country now turns a new leaf, our ambition is to give hope to each and every Afghan.

I wasn’t a hoarder, but I was on my way. I went to thrift stores and never didn’t buy something. A lot of cat figurines, needlepoint, afghans. Grandma stuff, I suppose.

There is a story which is not being told strongly enough of the Afghan employees of the UN inside the country who are saving hundreds of thousands of lives everyday by their bravery and nobody talks of them.

The United States supports the reintegration of people who have fought with the Taliban into Afghan society provided they: one, renounce al Qaeda, two, lay down their arms and renounce violence, and three, participate in the public political life of the country in accordance with the constitution.

We’re probably going to see some post-2014 military presence – some U.S. presence and a NATO presence – and while we’ve got much work to do in the next 29 months, we’ll have additional time later for the continued professionalization of the Afghan security forces.

The Afghans did not have sophisticated weapons like the Soviets did, but with their faith they defeated a superpower.

We as the Afghan people and government are willing to help Pakistan work for peace in Afghanistan and work for peace in Pakistan, together.

Afghans long ago resigned themselves to this sort of thing. Compromises must be made. Deals with the devil are better than ceaseless butchery. In the exigencies of post-conflict bygones, against the threat of collapse into more terrible bloodletting, the ugliness of realpolitik is the lesser evil.

The majority of the Afghan people support a strategic partnership with the United States.

After 9/11, a few hundred CIA and Special Operations personnel, backed by airpower and Afghan militias, devastated Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. That effort has since turned into a conventional Pentagon nation-building exercise and gone backward.

After spending time in the East and meeting with ordinary Afghans there, it’s hard to imagine how a future Afghan government will retain control of provinces such as Khost or Paktia once U.S. forces are gone.

The draconian prohibitions of the Taliban years and the gains Afghan women have achieved since the Taliban government was overthrown in 2001 are now well known and often cited: Today, Afghans lucky enough to live in secure regions can go to school, women may work in offices, and the burqa is no longer mandatory.

As a 22-year Army Veteran who served in Operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom, and as a Civilian Advisor to the Afghan Army in Operation Enduring Freedom, I understand both the gravity of giving the order, and the challenge of carrying it out.

‘I Am Singh’ is about Sikhs, who, despite living in the U.S. for generations, were mistaken for Arabs and Afghans due to their turbans and became victims of racist violence in the aftermath of 9/11. The film takes a look at the discrimination against Sikhs post 9/11.

You must keep in mind that Pakistan has suffered the aftermaths of the Cold War, and that Cold War had left deep imprints on our society. We were the worst sufferers from the ills of the Afghan war.

Family is so central to Afghan life that all Afghan stories are family stories. Family is something I simply can’t resist because all the great themes of human life – duty, grief, sacrifice, love, envy – you find all those things within families.

The U.S. must continue to carefully withdraw troops from Afghanistan at a pace based on assessment of the ground conditions so we do not leave our Afghan partners unable to guarantee long-term security or risk Afghanistan becoming a terrorist safe haven again.

The Afghans I met were some of the nicest and most honorable people I’ve ever encountered. There is a code called ‘Pashtunwali,’ so if someone invites you into their village, every last man will fight to protect your life. I was impressed by that.

By protecting our Afghan friends from reprisals and welcoming them into our American family, we can assert that the United States is still a great and good country – and that we do not abandon those who risked their lives to serve with us.

In 2012, I received a phone call from the family of Arsala Rahmani, the Afghan senator with whom I’d become friendly. That morning, a gunman had pulled up alongside Rahmani’s vehicle, idling in a crowded intersection, and shot him point blank.

In 1979, when I was toddler, the Russians invaded Afghanistan, and my whole family fled to Vienna, Virginia. Far from home, my parents were determined to raise my two sisters and me according to Afghan traditions.

I’m a believer in the Afghan people, so I support an increase in forces there.

Despite the limitations of the bulky 16mm camera and 10-minute film magazines, ‘The Anderson Platoon‘ feels as spontaneous and fresh as any films that have come out of the Afghan or Iraq wars.

Keeping a relatively small, predominantly U.S. Special Forces presence in Afghanistan to continue to train the Afghan army past December 2016 is a wise policy that would benefit both Afghans and Americans.

There is no Afghan Awakening Movement.

If we are visiting Afghans, typically the Afghan governor, district or provincial governor, we see he doesn’t wear body armor, and yet we’re walking through his streets. I’m his guest. I think that that’s important that I send a message that I trust him and I don’t think I am more valuable than I think he is.

It is in American and Afghan interests for the U.S. to stay in Afghanistan so it doesn’t turn into Iraq circa 2014, with the Taliban controlling much of the country while hosting a strong presence of ISIS and al-Qaeda as well as every other jihadist group of note.

My go-to gifts are scarves from my friend Matin Maulawizada’s nonprofit organization, Afghan Hands, which supports disenfranchised women in Afghanistan. In exchange for their beautiful embroidery, the women are given financial aid and classes in math and literacy. The scarves are all stunning and one of a kind.

Yarn, patterns, and needle sizes have come such a long way since your grandmother‘s afghans. Creatively, there is just so much to get into, so much to play with. It’s an amazing way to turn inward and get off your phone.

I tried to render the Afghan war as much as I could fro the perspective of the Afghans. I have served as an advisor to Afghan troops, and much of my war experience was seen through the lens of fighting that war alongside Afghan soldiers.

As late as 2009, 90 per cent of Afghans reckoned Karzai’s performance was excellent, good or fair.

Look at the Afghans, during the time of the Soviet invasion. They were among the poorest Muslims in the world, yet they were sustained by their faith in God, and God alone.

I don’t think the Palestinian people or Afghan children or some other things I’m concerned about are at the top of other people’s agendas – not right now, when America is going through such a recession and people are suffering across the board financially. But I think all that will change.

During the 19th century, Britain fought two wars in unsuccessful attempts to subjugate the Afghans. When Britain finally drew a border between India and Afghanistan in 1893, Pashtun tribes in southern Afghanistan were cut off from related tribes across the border in what was then India and is now Pakistan.

Definitely in the West, we’re all cast as the same now. Whether you’re Indian, Pakistani, Arab, Iranian, Afghan or whatever, you just get thrown into this category. And nine times out of 10, you’re depicted as bad.

It is not surprising that most Pakistanis do not support America’s bombardment of Afghanistan. The Afghans are neighbours on the brink of starvation and devastated by war. America has shown itself to be untrustworthy, a superpower that uses its values as a scabbard for its sword.

The book came after the fall of the Taliban, it says something about Afghan family life. Those kind of stories – what happens behind the scenes on a TV screen – are important.

WikiLeaks published the Afghan War Logs and U.S. diplomatic cables stolen from a classified network by an Army private.

After the Soviet withdrawal, many Afghan Communists had rebranded themselves as Islamists and joined the mujahedeen.

Foreign aid projects have pumped billions of dollars into the Afghan economy.

My war buddies, some were Americans, but some were Afghans. These were the guys that I fought alongside. We bled alongside each other; we mourned together. When I came home, these weren’t people I could keep up with on Facebook.

If it is terrorism, if it is war on terror, then the Afghan people will join you on terror.

When US-led forces toppled the Taliban government in November 2001, Afghans celebrated the downfall of a reviled and discredited regime.

I do spend a lot of weekends on the road. I have to pace myself. It can be pretty busy, but I’m not out in the Afghan desert with 70 pounds on my back, away from my family for a year at a time. I keep a good perspective on it.

I think the emancipation of women in Afghanistan has to come from inside, through Afghans themselves, gradually, over time.

The Taliban may pine for a pre-industrial society, but most Afghans do not.

We’ve got to see a state where the Afghan government can handle its own day-to-day security.

We are not in Afghanistan because girls were not allowed to go to school, but helping them do so will give the Afghan people hope for a better future.

The Afghans are probably the world champions in resisting foreign domination and infiltration into their country.

Certainly Afghans in general and women in particular want a country in which security is a daily reality rather than a campaign slogan or the focus of drive-by speeches from diplomats dropping in for the day.

Maybe to feel like an Afghan I needed to be born and raised in the States, and maybe I needed to live in Afghanistan for nearly a decade to feel like an American. Both worlds shaped me, but neither one of them completely correspond to the picture I have of myself.

If you look back historically, admittedly a long time ago, there were three Afghan wars in which Britain didn’t even come a good second. In more recent years the Russians were there with 120,000 men for ten years.

And across Afghanistan, every single day, Afghan soldiers, Afghan police and ISAF troops are serving shoulder-to-shoulder in some very difficult situations. And our engagement with them, our shoulder-to-shoulder relationship with them, our conduct of operations with them every single day defines the real relationship.

In Afghan culture, you don’t date – you marry. Even talking to boys before marriage brings great shame to your family.

Too often, stories about Afghanistan center around the various wars, the opium trade, the war on terrorism. Precious little is said about the Afghan people themselves – their culture, their traditions, how they lived in their country and how they manage abroad as exiles.

These guys that were standing up to fight, for the most part, had pride in their country, and they wanted to do the best, and they wanted to go out and fight, and I was as close to these Afghans as I was to the Marines.

Now, al Qaeda’s on the run. Afghanistan is no longer a base of operations. The Afghan government is a friendly government that is trying to bring democracy to its people.

Mecca and Medinah is a very special place in the hearts of every Muslim but particularly for every Afghan.

I myself had to grow a longer beard and Afghan clothes. I was in danger of being kidnapped by smugglers, though I didn’t know it at the time.