Frist Loses His Mind: U.S. Can’t Win, Bring Taliban Into Afghan Government

Posted on October 2, 2006

Update: Frist Responds! Everyone calm down.

From a spokesperson at Frist’s VOLPAC:

The Senator was misquoted. We will have a blog post addressing the AP story very shortly.

And so we enter into bizzaro world. I thought the Democrats were the party of cut and run. With this kind of mindset we might as well just surrender and help the jihadis build a world empire. With this kind of attitude, what difference does it make which party is in power?

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…
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.

I think most of us voted for the Republicans to “fight” the terrorists…not sign peace deals with them.

Reactions:

Ace:

if they want to sign peace deals with them, that’s their decision. I and others can make another decision. The country may move in this direction, but we hardly have to endorse the decision by voting in favor of Quislings.

At least the Democrats talk tough about sending more troops to Afghanistan and killing Taliban fighters and capturing bin Ladin.

If that really is no longer a GOP prirority, then I am no longer a member of the GOP.

Allah Pundit

If we’re going to do this, just pull everyone out. Don’t lend an imprimatur of legitimacy to it by shepherding these medieval savages into a U.S.-backed government. Pull out, admit defeat, and let the Taliban take back the country through force. Then we can really and truly be back to September 10, 2001. Minus a skyscraper or two.

MKH

Well, by all means, invite them into the process, then. Perhaps we should send self-addressed, stamped explosive belts with which the Talibanis can R.S.V.P.

Issue No. 1, the national security issue, toughness, the only issue left for the GOP. Hand it to Frist and he fumbles it with a vengeance. Whaaat?

Frank J.

Usually most of politics doesn’t make me too angry because it’s all the idiocy is just expected, but right now I need some duct tape to keep my head from exploding. If we can’t even expect the Republican Majority Leader to focus on killing all the terrorists, what hope do we have?

Slublog has the picture for this.
After a breather on this…I think we are all hoping that somehow Frist’s statements were taken out of context. I’m not sure because it sounds like defeatism to me no matter how you slice it. However, after thinking on this I think that some, including my initial reaction, may be over-reacting. Not to what Frist said, but putting the entire Republican party under the umbrella of his sole words. His one opinion by no means reflects every Republican’s opinion. Holding the individual accountable for what they say is absolutely right, but how is giving up on the entire party constructive, fair, or wise?

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Comments

3 Responses to “Frist Loses His Mind: U.S. Can’t Win, Bring Taliban Into Afghan Government”

AShiningCity on October 2nd, 2006 4:11 pm

I would hate to say “I told you so.” I would love to say how wrong I was about the Republicans.

But that wouldn’t be honest.

The Republicans are no different from the Democrats. Period. End of story.
physicsgeek on October 2nd, 2006 8:33 pm

“…putting the entire Republican party under the umbrella of his sole words”

Jay, I hate to pile on, but Frist is the Senate majority leader. If he isn’t representative of the GOP, he’s just pulled the whole team under the bus with him.

I think that I’ll write in Mickey Mouse this year. At least it’s expected when he acts stupid and cartoonish.
kerwin_brown on October 3rd, 2006 8:59 am

In 1972 Nixon slaughtered anti war Presidential candidate George McGovern showing that the people were behind the Vietnam war. One of his platforms was to bring the North Vietnamese into the democratic process. In Iraq Al Sadr was brought into the Democratic process though he still is behind much of the sectarian violence there now. Politicians feel that people will put down their guns and pick up a ballot when given the power to do so.