al-Qaeda fighters in the eastern Shah-i-Kot Valley. Coalition forces cleared the valley during Operation Anaconda in March 2002, which resulted in 8 US soldiers killed and 80 wounded. US forces established their main base at Bagram airbase just north of Kabul. Kandahar airport also became an important US base, and outposts were established in eastern provinces to hunt for Taliban and al-Qaeda fugitives. Following Operation Anaconda, al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters established sanctuaries on the Pakistani border, where they launched cross-border raids beginning in April 2002. US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld aimed to carry out operations in Afghanistan rapidly and leave as fast as possible. He thus wished to focus on kinetic counter-terrorism operations and building up a new Afghan Army. Rumsfeld announced in mid-2002 that "The war is over in Afghanistan," to the disbelief of State Department, CIA, and military officials in the country. As a result, Rumsfeld downplayed the need for an Afghan army of even 70,000 troops, far fewer than the 250,000 envisaged by Karzai. In February 2002, the National Security Council met to decide whether to expand ISAF beyond Kabul. In a dispute between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Rumsfeld, Rumsfeld's view—that the force should not be expanded—prevailed. Historians later wrote that the failure of ISAF to be deployed beyond Kabul drove Karzai to offer positions within the state to potential spoilers whose activities did great harm to the state's reputation. Because the rise of the Taliban insurgency was linked to grievances over governance, this became a serious problem. Several events in early 2002, taken together, can be seen as the conclusion of the first phase of the US-led war in Afghanistan. The first was the dispersal of the major groups of the Taliban and al-Qaeda after the end of Anaconda. In February 2002 the United States decided to not expand international security forces beyond Kabul. President Bush made his speech at the Virginia Military Institute on April 17, 2002, invoking General George Marshall while talking about Afghan reconstruction, resulting in discussion of a 'Marshall Plan' for Afghanistan. The decision against a significant expansion of international presence and development assistance was later seen by historians as a major error. The US's growing commitment to Iraq, however, was absorbing more and more resources, which in hindsight would have made committing such resources to Afghanistan impossible. Notes References Bibliography Articles Books War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) 2001 in