Well, the reports are correct that we're conducting very robust military operations on the Afghan side of the border in areas where we think al-Qaida is operating and Taliban remnants are.

I have been to Afghanistan many times, even before the Taliban collapsed. I was fascinated by the country.

Any conception of human well-being you could plausibly have, the Taliban patently fails to maximize it.

Thousands of civilians have lost their lives to terrorist attacks inside Pakistan, and thousands more will - because, unlike the Pakistani government, which has no coherent policy to deal with the radicals, the Taliban have one to deal with Pakistan and its citizens.

The Taliban knows they have more to fear from an educated girl than an American drone.

The Taliban and its backers bear the responsibility for the consequences of this outrageous act.

I don't think you can rely on Iran. I don't think you can rely on other radicals like the Taliban. They dispatched Al Qaida to bomb New York and Washington. What were they thinking? Were they that stupid? They weren't stupid. There is an irrationality there, and there is madness in this method.

We all hoped in 2001 that we could put in place an Afghan government under President Karzai that would be able to control the country, make sure al-Qaeda didn't come back, and make sure the Taliban wasn't resurging. It didn't work out.

I say to the Taliban: surrender the terrorists; or surrender power. It's your choice.

The Taliban is resilient.

The fact is that Iran doesn't want to see the Taliban come back any more than do most Afghan citizens.

There has not yet been a major ground offensive battle... There are, we know, negotiations going on between the opposition forces and the Taliban leadership for surrender.

Mr. Speaker, we are a blessed Nation. We have not suffered another attack on our soil since September 11, and we are grateful. We have killed or captured dozens of members of al Qaeda and the Taliban. Our military and intelligence forces are working both hard and smart.

Cults, or related social movements such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, result in massive military expenses.

But here too it should be noted that the President's approach was to first ask the repressive and brutal Taliban to surrender Osama bin Laden to us, and only after that government refused to do that did we invade.

The Taliban didn't attack us on 9/11 - Al-Qaeda did. That's why I and other people joined the military - to go after Al Qaeda. Not the Taliban.

Based on what you're seeing on your televisions and have seen of the Taliban rise up and take over Afghanistan faster than any of the 'experts' told us was possible, how is it that you can trust in any way the experts on COVID?

In much of the world, there is a sense of an ultra-powerful CIA manipulating everything that happens, such as running the Arab Spring, running the Pakistani Taliban, etc. That is just nonsense.

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.

It is very clear that the people in Afghanistan do not want the Taliban back.