Now Frist Is Being Disingenuous

I'm as pro-war and anti-terrorism as the next guy but Frist's original statement didn't bother me. I think he was being realistic. And if you actually read the entire IHT piece, his denial h/t Instapundit doesn't change the facts of what both he and Martinez said. There was plenty more besides the headline.

The Tennessee Republican said he had learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated by military means.

"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."

Frist said asking the Taliban to join the government was a decision to be made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida accompanying Frist, said negotiating with the Taliban was not "out of the question" but that fighters who refused to join the political process would have to be defeated.

"A political solution is how it's all going to be solved," he said.

The reality is we can defeat this enemy militarily but are choosing to not do that in a classic sense. We are structured to fight them only to a point where they begin to lay down their weapons and join a political process. That is precisely the same strategy we are pursuing in Iraq. Anyone who thinks the US military has been fighting these enemies with the full might of the armed forces is kidding themselves.

Now, I'd be happy to entertain the debate of whether we should be ... there is a rationale for that. But to say that has been the Bush policy up until now would be incorrect.

Comments

[bill]

Bush has said all along the strategy was a stable democracy in Afghanistan, not total defeat of the Taliban. All wars turn political in the end phases. After WWII we occupied Germany and turned it into a productive democracy, same with Japan. I think those going nuts over what Frist said are just naive. I am not sure the time to try and turn the Taliban is now, or later, but eventually, you will want to turn to pure political fighting. As with Iraq, I doubt it will be peaceful and we will continue killing the residual violent strain of Taliban for many years to come.