State of Terror

by Hillary Rodham Clinton

But she also knew there were elements within Pakistan, within the government and even the military, probably around that table, who saw the American withdrawal from Afghanistan as an opportunity to assert even more power and influence in the region. By essentially making Afghanistan another province of Pakistan. With the Americans gone, the Taliban, after being given safe haven for years in Pakistan, would again take power in Afghanistan. And with them would come their allies, in some ways their international military arm: Al-Qaeda. It was an Al-Qaeda intent on hurting the West. Specifically intent on revenge against the United States for the killing of Osama bin Laden. They’d pledged it, and now, with the help of Bashir Shah and the Russian mafia, with the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and the reemergence of the Taliban, they’d be in a position to carry the threat through, and in a more spectacular, more destructive fashion than they’d dreamed possible. A terrorist organization could do what a government could not. A government was subject to international scrutiny and sanctions. A terrorist organization was not.