Frist: Taliban Can't be Defeated

[ECH1969]

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan guerrilla war can never be won militarily and called for efforts to bring the Taliban and their supporters into the Afghan government.

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.

In violence on Monday, a suicide bomber blew himself up next to a NATO convoy in the capital Kabul, wounding three soldiers and three civilians, while a roadside bomb in the eastern Paktia province killed three Afghan soldiers and wounded three others, officials said.

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,115505,00.html

[tk2kewl]

1. Yeah... guess what, you cant kill an idea with a bullet.

Dumbass!

[Tellurian]

43. The Taliban never were the problem. It's

Alquida. The Taliban are nothing but local warlords.
Frist is blowing smoke..AlQuaida are the terrorist arms.

[Megahurtz]

2. So then bring the troops home. n/t

[jayfish]

3. Say It Loud And Say It Often.

By going to Iraq, we lost Afghanistan.

Jay

[gratuitous]

4. So what are you going to do about it, Dr. Frist?

Tie off the hemorrhaging artery or continue to pump in unit after unit of blood? (Explained in terms that a surgeon might be familiar with, even one who's license has been revoked.)

[Just Me]

53. License revoked, he's not a Dr.,...he's a weiner and a "ho".

At least, he looks like the former and acts like the latter.

Bottom line, he serves no one but himself and has no place as a "representative" of anyone BUT himself just like the rest of those anti-social, pro-corporatist people ruInning a country that, at some moment, shined as a beacon of hope for humanity. I remember the moment, but lost when it happened over the last several years.

[ck4829]

5. But... but... Cut and Run.... Smite them in the name of Jesus

What happened to that?

[mazzarro]

12. Yes indeed - what happened to 'Cut and Run'?

Thought it was to 'stay the course', then 'adapt to win'.

[indepat]

20. Thought not leaving 'til the (ubiquitous, nebulous never-ending) job is

done, until all terraists the world-over are defeated completely, once and for all: (and at a likely cost of possibly tens of trillions of dollars judging by cost of current frays, if by conventional means and weapons). Surely Dr. Frist has highlighted the impossibility and insanity of getting the neocon PNAC job done.

Edited for dollar cost and context

[Old and In the Way]

15. How about "Stay and Pay"?

and pay....and pay.....and pay....and pay....and....

[VegasWolf]

31. or "Stay and Pray" nt

[leQ]

32. or Stay and Play

[Subdivisions]

dupe - delete

[Subdivisions]

6. Frist is EMBOLDENING the terrorists! Place him under arrest for

being an illegal enemy combatant!

[endarkenment]

7. "bring the Taliban and their supporters into the Afghan government."

What? I could have sworn I was told that they aided and abetted the 9-11 attackers and as such we were therefore justified in attacking and invading and occupying Afghanistan in order to bring them to justice. Has something changed? Was some other group other than al qaeda, under the protection of the taliban, responsible for 9-11?

[sinkingfeeling]

17. Haven't you been paying attention to our leader? Everybody knows it was

Saddam that protected and financed those responsible for 9-11! That's why we had to go into Iraq!

[leesa]

38. Yes. Frist and the rest of the Bush Crime Family

Methinks someone is about to spill the beans on the 9-11 US government inside job.

[pitohui]

8. frist should know, he is taliban

kill a cat and jail an online poker player for the invisible cloud being :sarcasm:

[Supersedeas]

9. Whoa...Mr. Frist needs a new treatment--the effects are wearing off

[democraticinsurgent]

10. what an idiot

now he admits they can't militarily defeat a movement, but full speed ahead on the War on Terror.

aka the War on Modern War Tactics

[jpak]

11. If we didn't have 140,000 troops in I-raq

We could have captured The Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden - and delivered whoop-ass on the Taliban - and rebuilt Afghanistan's infrastructure - and prevented the resurgence of Afghan opium poppy production.

The Cut-and-Run Cat Killer just doesn't get it...

[IndianaGreen]

13. As Frist's helicopter landed, children just outside the base threw stones

The pair had intended to visit a new US$6.5 million (euro5.1 million) hospital in Qalat built by the United Arab Emirates, but a group of wounded Taliban fighters were recuperating there, including a midlevel commander, and U.S. commander Lt. Col. Kevin McGlaughlin canceled the visit because of security concerns.

How long before the Bush regime admits that the US has been defeated in Afghanistan and Iraq. How many more will die for a mistake?

[davidinalameda]

14. uh no

sorry Bill

you don't return to power the people who assisted those who blew up the WTC

[anotherdrew]

16. WHY DOES BILL FRIST HATE AMERICA AND LOVE TERRORISTS?

worthless bastard

[kskiska]

18. What kind of message will that send

to the enemy?

[mike_c]

26. whose enemy? Afghans are not MY enemy....

eom

[MH1]

29. He is not referring to Afghans, he is referring to Taliban

The guys who treat women worse than property, remember? (Okay maybe some or all of the Taliban are Afghans, but certainly not all Afghans are Taliban! And those who aren't don't want them running the government!)

Maybe Frist & other republicans are willing to abandon Afghani women to the Taliban because they just don't care about women at all.

Saddam was, in contrast, a secular, equal opportunity tyrant. HE had to go. :eyes:

But, to be honest, Frist has a point about a military solution not working. Too bad we didn't give more useful help to the Karzai government to keep the the Taliban from regaining a foothold. But NO we had to abandon them and go invade another country.

Great, just great.

[mike_c]

30. the taliban are not my enemy either-- that doesn't make them my friends...

...but being religious dictators doesn't make them worth killing simply because we can. The world is full of bad people, or at least bad people by our standards. It's not our responsibility to kill them all. I certainly would not want to live under the Taliban-- I doubt that I'd last very long. But that doesn't give us the right to send soldiers and aircraft to kill them. The war in Afghanistan has morphed into something unrecognizable-- remember when it was about bin Laden? Americans in Afghanistan are not even looking for bin Laden anymore. The war has taken on a life of its own, because it never had clear objectives to begin with, so now no one knows how or when to stop it. Meanwhile, the Taliban grow stronger because THEY enjoy most of the popular support. In other words, when Americans fight the Taliban they're fighting Afghanistan, or at last the majority Pashtun people.

[ShortnFiery]

19. What Hypocrites!

We can't touch the Poppy Fields that serve to fund the "Terrorists" yet old Alberto is encouraged to bust chronic and terminally ill people, many of them elderly get BUSTED by DEA just for smoking MEDICINAL Marijuana.

Disgusting! :puke:

[Bucky]

21. Frist: those who harbor terrorists...

Pardon me while my brain boggles.

[dkofos]

22. Sounds like cut and run to me

[LynnTheDem]

23. Must be the very first time ever Frist has actually been correct.

Too bad all the dead had to die BEFORE frist thought some common bloody sense.

Now, Frist...try to think the same common sense re IRAQ.

MFer.

[NOLADEM]

24. Coward. Hypocrite. Dear God, what message does this send the troops?

:sarcasm:

What the hell is he doing?

Did he have a few drinks with lunch?

Keep talking, Frissy.

[mike_c]

25. dayum-- Frist gets it right for a change....

I'm speechless. Wonder if he'll join the anti-war movement next?

[babylonsister]

28. If he thinks it'll further his political aspirations, I'm sure he

would. Ugh. I wish he'd just go away!

[Gregorian]

27. But.....Mission Accomplished!

Those 38% are going to be so confused.



Today has to be the finest day ever, on DU. I never thought I'd find a place with such likeminded people. YAY! You guys are the greatest!

We now return you to your disappointment and rage...:)

[mc jazz]

33. he been talking to jesus

relax, he see's the bigger picture now

[ckramer]

34. Frist is telling the truth

Democrats should welcome that.

[Anakin Skywalker]

35. Frist Is Merely Wishing For Taliban-Like Gov't Here @ Home.

Come on! It's been a wet dream of the religious rightwing of this country for decades!

[Tin Man]

36. kick

:crazy:

[Vidar]

37. Better to have the truth late than never, even though the bastard

chokes on it.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

39. Two (Big) Thoughts

1.)We went into Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, the government in power prior to and on 9/11 that we are told harbored Bin Laden and his murderous thugs. Although we drove them out of power and into the hills, we didn't completely crush them because we suddenly CUT AND RUN from Afghanistan to fulfill Bush's apparent obsession with toppling Saddam and overunning Iraq. And NOW Mr. Frist thinks that we should ALLOW them the opportunity to have some political power? Does this mean that we are not going to keep trying to hunt down the remnants of their government. Wouldn't allowing them to wield some political power legitimize them in some way? Is he, dare I say, "flip-flopping"? Hey, I'm just saying!

2.)Mr. Frist is at least partially right in recognizing the fact(albeit LONG after it would've been REALLY good to critically think about it!) that fighting and defeating an ideology (i.e. radical fundamentalist Islam) and/or tactics (i.e. terrorism) is NOT quite as clear nor easy as fighting a REAL war against real people and real governments and is a long-term battle that military strength alone is simply unable to conquer. I believe that the so-called "War on terror" being orchestrated by Bush and his loyalists in Congress is inherently vague, undefined, and cannot (as far as I can tell) provide any means by which to judge its success. In my humble opinion, the debate that we SHOULD be having in this country is whether or not our country and our armed services can continue to operate in an indefinite state of military conflict around the world and whether it is even a good thing for our country. Also, if most of our troops continue to be spread out over the world in a massive effort to root out terrorists and attack and possibly occupy various countries, who's going to be left here to protect us from other countries like North Korea? Who's going be here if we have any more catastrophic natural disasters (to say nothing of future terrorist attacks like the ones that Bush et. al keep ominously warning us about) I personally think that we need to, as Kerry intelligently but unsuccessfully suggested during the 2004 campaign, utilize more human intelligence and foster better relationships with other countries to hunt down terrorists and prevent them from doing harm to others. Sure, there are times when military force is completely appropriate (i.e. Afghanistan) but I believe that we have neither the duty nor the obligation to simply invade other countries and impose our will upon them UNLESS they really do pose a clear and immediate threat to ourselves and/or our allies and I would think that such situations necessitating pre-emptive action should be fairly obvious to everybody (except Bush et. al apparently).

[daleo]

40. Afghanistan is now just a civil war

Internally, it has little or nothing to do with Bin Laden and all the rest of the "clash of civilizations" stuff. It is south (Pashtun) against North. Mostly it's about who gets first dibs on the limited wealth of that country.

Frist has a point (he must be desperate to be saying it, though). I hope he sends an email to Stephen Harper in Canada, so our soldiers can quit being picked off by ambushes and IEDs too.

[proud patriot]

41. What kind of woman would vote for

someone who defends the taliban?

[nealmhughes]

42. This is utterly mind-boggling...

Would anyone trust the Taliban to have even the Ministry of Dental Education in Kabul?

What does Zair Shah have to say? The people in the North?

The women? The Zoroastorians and Yezidi? The secular? The moderate Sunnis and the few Shiites and Hindus in Afghanistan?

Now the Taliban ain't al Qaeda, but they aren't angels either, remember the Buddahs...and the self-appointed religious police who whipped women on the streets and banned music, live or recorded? Took the girls out of school?

[bhikkhu]

44. It is possible all that is negotiable still

I recall that they sued for peace several times during the war, that the Buddha incident occurred in response to political manuevers isolating the country, and various other incidents that would indicate they are human beings with the desire for peace and the capacity to compromise.

Recall that the "middle ages" have come and gone in many regions, many times. Ending the killing and destruction would be a prerequisite for any desirable outcome.

[4_TN_TITANS]

45. There's our ass of a senator....

I was wondering when Frist would come out and join the current Republican freak show... :eyes:

[GeorgeGist]

46. if only we had more hearts...

we could replace the bad ones. Right, Doc?

[allisonthegreat]

47. Of Course they can't they are supplying half

of the heroin to us and other countries.

[denverbill]

48. I can't believe this isn't front page news everywhere.

The top GOP leader in the Senate wants to negotiate with the folks to protected Osama. If a Democrat had suggested this, every network would be running it non-stop.

[Hoping4Change]

49. It could have been defeated had the US stayed in

Afganistan and rebuilt it, instead of invading Iraq.

[bamacrat]

50. Talk about flip flopping.

[Orsino]

51. Emboldening the enemy? n/t

[Neshanic]

52. Frist restates. "Taliban's cat's can't be defeated."

"There are too many, and they have those little paws, and I KNOW cats".

[samsingh]

54. isn't he being defeatist? wanting to cut and run?

[samsingh]

55. what message is this sending to the troops?

[wisteria]

56. Senator Kerry jumbed all over Frist for his comments. Retreaticans

is what Kerry called him. They don't have a clue what to do their so while no one is interested let the Taliban again control the country.

http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=4355