Frist the feckless

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Oct 8, 2006

SENATE Majority Leader Bill Frist was in Afghanistan briefly this week and made a statement that ought to raise both eyebrows and concerns. According to an Associated Press reporter, he said the 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.

This bleak outlook is extraordinary, not just for its candor but because of who said it. Frist is, after all, one of the leaders of a Republican Party that has scorned Democrats for threatening to "cut and run" in the dubious war being prosecuted in Iraq, which most Americans have come to realize is a costly diversion in the war on terror.

Yet Afghanistan is the place that was the central lair of the Taliban octopus. It was where Osama bin Laden lived -- perhaps still lives. It was ground zero for terror activity before there was a Ground Zero. Unlike Iraq, just about everybody agreed that Afghanistan had to be invaded. Even the French sent forces there.

The United States has some 20,000 troops in Afghanistan assisting NATO forces. With the Taliban resurgent, the task of the coalition has lately become harder. But is the defeat of the Taliban unrealistic, as Frist suggested? Does a political accommodation have to be made with these fanatics who in power kept women as chattel and used a sports stadium for executions and mutilations?

This was a political embarrassment and, not surprisingly, Amy Call, the senator's communications director, issued a clarification. The senator was talking about the native tribes often targeted by the Taliban for recruitment, she said in a prepared statement; they are the ones who should have a voice in the Afghan government. "Sen. Frist does not believe Taliban fighters ... should be brought into the reconciliation process."

It is possible, of course, that the senator merely misspoke, but the interview was taped and The Associated Press stands by its report. One of the ironies is that Frist, as quoted by the AP, may be right about the military challenge. As he said: "It sounds to me ... that the Taliban is everywhere."

But how did we come to such a desperate situation? Frist and his Republican colleagues can't connect the dots. While obsessed by Iraq, the United States has let Afghanistan slide back into hell.

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Editorial