Weird: Bill Frist advocating peace deal with Taliban
OK, I know things have been tough for the GOP lately, but this is getting truly weird. Via a Kos diarist, here's the AP in The Guardian:
And the war in Afghanistan was going acceptably well (at least better than Iraq) until we got diverted into the Iraq quagmire and idiotically started eradicating poppy fields, the only source of income to many Afghan farmers. The Taliban are some sick wackos. Even the Iranian mullahs think they're too fanatical. The only people who like the Taliban are disturbingly powerful number of Pakistanis and the poppy farmers I mentioned previously, who have reluctantly sided with the Taliban because we're so intent on our stupid "Drug War" that we let it screw up our national security. And now Frist wants to let them into the Afghan goverment. What does Hamid Karzai think of this? (Guardian: "Karzai's spokesmen were not immediately able to be reached for comment.")
Needless to say, right-wingers heads are exploding in fury at this suggestion. See this diary for a wonderful sampling. Really, this has gotten some hardcore right-wingers to wholeheartedly denounce the GOP. Frist is issued a clarification, but the wingers aren't buying it. (Normally I don't link to these folks, but I'll make an exception here.)
Now there's also the question: "Is Frist Right?" It may be that things are hopeless in Afghanistan. But it seems hard to get my head around someone who could think that Afghanistan is unwinnable with military force, but that Iraq is. According to his website, Frist is still "stay the course" on Iraq. It seems to me from my comfortable office chair that Afghanistan might still be salvageable, but that Iraq is completely fucked. But I'm not completely up to speed on Afghanistan developments. Maybe Frist is privy to super-secret info of which I, humble author of Internal Monologue, am completely unaware.
QALAT, Afghanistan (AP) - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Islamic militia and its supporters into the Afghan government.
The Tennessee Republican said he learned from 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,'' Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. ``And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful.''
Is this some sort of thing where Bill Frist falls on his sword to distract the public from everything else going on? How did Senate Majority Leader Frist suddenly become more accommodationist than the Democrats? Unlike Saddam Hussein, the Taliban sheltered Osama Bin Laden and provided a vast amount of direct support to Al Qaeda.
And the war in Afghanistan was going acceptably well (at least better than Iraq) until we got diverted into the Iraq quagmire and idiotically started eradicating poppy fields, the only source of income to many Afghan farmers. The Taliban are some sick wackos. Even the Iranian mullahs think they're too fanatical. The only people who like the Taliban are disturbingly powerful number of Pakistanis and the poppy farmers I mentioned previously, who have reluctantly sided with the Taliban because we're so intent on our stupid "Drug War" that we let it screw up our national security. And now Frist wants to let them into the Afghan goverment. What does Hamid Karzai think of this? (Guardian: "Karzai's spokesmen were not immediately able to be reached for comment.")
Needless to say, right-wingers heads are exploding in fury at this suggestion. See this diary for a wonderful sampling. Really, this has gotten some hardcore right-wingers to wholeheartedly denounce the GOP. Frist is issued a clarification, but the wingers aren't buying it. (Normally I don't link to these folks, but I'll make an exception here.)
Now there's also the question: "Is Frist Right?" It may be that things are hopeless in Afghanistan. But it seems hard to get my head around someone who could think that Afghanistan is unwinnable with military force, but that Iraq is. According to his website, Frist is still "stay the course" on Iraq. It seems to me from my comfortable office chair that Afghanistan might still be salvageable, but that Iraq is completely fucked. But I'm not completely up to speed on Afghanistan developments. Maybe Frist is privy to super-secret info of which I, humble author of Internal Monologue, am completely unaware.
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