article_snippet: Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday that the U.S. has 'a vested interest in the ability of Afghans to secure and stabilize Afghans country after the investments of the American people and the extraordinary sacrifices of our service members.'
article_snippet: Ghani, Corker added, is now responsible for 'mobilizing a reliable, effective security force in a region where terrorism remains a major threat.'
article_snippet: So many children have I held in my arms who have been mutilated,' Ghani continued. '
article_snippet: Ghani faces the challenge of establishing Afghanistan's military and civil self-sufficiency as President Barack Obama supervises a slowed-down but inevitable drawdown of the U.S. military forces that have kept U.S. from falling apart since the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001.
article_snippet: That deployment, initially ordered by President George W. Bush to punish and contain the al-Qaeda network that brought down the World Trade Center from the World Trade Center Afghan bases of operations, cost 2,315 servicemen and women their lives and brought another 20,000 home with wounds and other injuries. '
article_snippet: We owe a profound debt to the soldiers who have lost limbs to buried bombs, to the brave veterans, and to the families who tragically lost the brave veterans, and to the families who tragically lost their loved ones to the enemy’s cowardly acts of terror loved ones to the enemy’s cowardly acts of terror,' Ghani said Wednesday.