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April 10, 2008: Defense Secretary Says US Is Fighting in Afghanistan Today Partly Because of Mistakes Made during 1980s Soviet-Afghan War

2008-04-10

Speaking before a public hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says, “We were attacked from Afghanistan in 2001 and we are at war in Afghanistan today in no small measure because of mistakes this government made—mistakes I, among others, made—in the end game of the anti-Soviet war there some 20 years ago.” [US Department of Defense, 4/10/2008]