Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Frist: let's make up with the Taliban

Posted by John Whiteside at October 3, 2006 09:44 AM

Anyone who suggests that we should have a plan to start getting troops out of Iraq (in accordance with the wishes of Iraqis themselves) is quickly accused of wanting to "cut and run." It will be interesting to see if we hear similar criticism of Bill Frist, who yesterday said that he doesn't think the war in Afghanistan can be won [ http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-afghan3oct03,1,2770102.story?coll=la-news-a_... ], and that the Taliban should be invited to be part of the Afghan government.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) said Monday that the war against Taliban guerrillas in Afghanistan could never be won militarily, and he urged support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban" into the government.

Frist said he learned from military briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the battlefield.

"You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government," he said during a visit to a military base in the Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful."

Afghanistan is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since U.S.-led forces ousted the fundamentalist Taliban regime in late 2001 for harboring Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

It's a rather startling departure for Frist, who has mostly distinguished himself as a Bush administration water-carrier with some unfortunate memory [ http://www.bythebayou.com/2005/10/pants-on-fire.html ] problems [ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/16/AR2005061600501.html (F6 note -- evidently not the article the author intended to link, but on-topic anyway)]. I'm quite curious to see what the reaction from the president and the rest of his party is.

http://blogs.chron.com/bluebayou/2006/10/frist_lets_make_up_with_the_ta.html [with comments]

[F6 note -- see also (items linked in):
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?Message_id=13760774 ;
in particular http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?Message_id=13733891 ;
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?Message_id=13698969 and preceding; and
http://www.investorshub.com/boards/read_msg.asp?Message_id=13630327 and preceding and following]