US Senate majority leader Bill Frist (R) of Tennessee said Monday that the war against the Taliban can "never" be won militarily and that it was time to include "people who call themselves Taliban" in the Afghan government.
The Associated Press reports that Mr. Frist said he had learned from military reports that the Taliban were "too numerous and had too much popular support" to be defeated in a military campaign.
"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 US-led forces ousted the fundamentalist Taliban regime in late 2001 for harboring Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Sen. Mel Martinez (R) of Florida, who was traveling in Afghanistan with Frist, said that negotiations with the Taliban were not "out of the question." But he added that he thought Taliban fighters who did not want to be a part of the political process would have to be defeated militarily.
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A few hours later, however, Frist released a statement on the Volunteer Political Action Committee website, saying that his comments had been taken out of context.
First of all, let me make something clear: The Taliban is a murderous band of terrorists who've oppressed the people of Afghanistan with their hateful ideology long enough. America's overthrow of the Taliban and support for responsible, democratic governance in Afghanistan is a great accomplishment that should not and will not be reversed.
Having discussed the situation with commanders on the ground, I believe that we cannot stabilize Afghanistan purely through military means. Our counter-insurgency strategy must win hearts and minds and persuade moderate Islamists potentially sympathetic to the Taliban to accept the legitimacy of the Afghan national government and democratic political processes.
National reconciliation is a necessary and an urgent priority ... but America will never negotiate with terrorists or support their entry into Afghanistan's government.
Ed Morrissey of the conservative blog Captain's Quarters writes that he feels someone confused "Taliban" with "Taliban supporters" and "whether that was Frist or the reporter will probably remain a point of contention between the two." But he also says that the Frist incident does bring up an important point about "the end game" in Afghanistan.
If we want a representative democracy in Afghanistan, it will probably be heavily influenced by the Pashtuns, who have a strong Islamist bent. They did, after all, push the Taliban into power. At some point, we have to find a way to convince these Islamists to buy into democracy, and we have to be willing to allow that democracy to develop its own laws and customs. Otherwise, we will have to prop up a strongman who can keep the Pashtuns oppressed, which will create an even greater Islamist impulse in Afghanistan.
Frist's comments about not being able to "stabilize Afghanistan through purely military means" echo recent ones made by Canadian officials. In early September, the Canadian Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor also said he felt it would be impossible to defeat the Taliban militarily. The Toronto Star reports that a recent poll of Canadians showed that a majority of those surveyed agreed with this sentiment, with 59 percent saying that Canadian soldiers were dying for "an unwinnable cause." And almost three-quarters of those polled said the Bush administration had made the world a more dangerous place because of its actions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Meanwhile, The Sunday Times of London reported that British troops have agreed to withdraw from one of the most dangerous parts of Afghanistan after "agreeing [to] a secret deal with the local people."
Over the past two months British soldiers have come under sustained attack defending a remote mud-walled government outpost in the town of Musa Qala in southern Afghanistan. Eight have been killed there.
It has now been agreed the troops will quietly pull out of Musa Qala in return for the Taliban doing the same. The compound is one of four district government offices in the Helmand province that are being guarded by British troops. Although soldiers on the ground may welcome the agreement, it is likely to raise new questions about troop deployment. Last month Sir Richard Dannatt, the new head of the British Army, warned that soldiers in Afghanistan were fighting at the limit of their capacity and could only "just" cope with the demands.
The deal allows both sides to avoid losing face, which The Sunday Times reports is key to the Afghans' perception of how events are proceeding. Recent polls show that 70 percent of Afghans are waiting to see who will become "the dominant force" before deciding who to back.
- Records show Tenet briefed Rice on Al Qaeda threat (New York Times)
- Winds of change blowing at UN (CBSNews.com)
- Iraq's leaders announce plan to curb sectarian violence (McClatchy)
- Report: Hamas weighing large-scale conflict with Israel (YNetNews, Israel)
- Tenet recalled warning Rice (Washington Post)
Feedback appreciated. E-mail Tom Regan.
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