WASHINGTON: Alarm bells are going off in the US political and strategic community over the Bush administration’s weighing the option of bringing Taliban back into the power equation in Afghanistan.
First signs of impending overtures to Taliban from Washington came last month when Bush and his aides gingerly supported Pakistan’s agreement with Taliban in the Waziristan province, a deal which was panned in strategic circles as a sell-out to extremists at the expense of US and NATO ground troops in Afghanistan.
Undeterred by the criticism, the Bush subsequently persuaded Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is vehemently opposed to the deal, to ’wait and see’ how the Pakistani deal works.
Now comes advice from Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that the Bush administration should consider bringing Taliban back into the power equation in Kabul.
Arguing that Taliban fighters were "too numerous and too popular" to be defeated, Frist told reporters after a visit to Afghanistan last weekend that "You need to bring them (Taliban) into a more transparent type of government... And if that’s accomplished, we’ll be successful."
"Approaching counterinsurgency by winning hearts and minds will ultimately be the answer. Military versus insurgency one-to-one doesn’t sound like it can be won. It sounds to me... that the Taliban is everywhere," he was quoted as saying.
The remarks sparked outrage in US political-strategic circles with critics panning Frist, who is a doctor by profession, of waving the white flag before elements who helped perpetuate 9/11.
"Senator Frist now suggests that the best way forward in Afghanistan is to coddle the Taliban by welcoming Taliban members into a coalition government, as if 9/11 had never happened," Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi chafed in a statement. Frist, who is a Republican Presidential aspirant in 2008, was also criticized by John Kerry.
Not that the Democrats have a great record with the fundamentalist yahoos first mid-wifed by the Pakistani military to get a foothold in Afghanistan and gain strategic depth against India, which prefers the more broad-based and pan-Afghan Northern Alliance.
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8 October 2006, 19:34
US set to cut deal with Taliban:
WASHINGTON: Alarm bells are going off in the US political and strategic community over the Bush administration’s weighing the option of bringing Taliban back into the power equation in Afghanistan.
First signs of impending overtures to Taliban from Washington came last month when Bush and his aides gingerly supported Pakistan’s agreement with Taliban in the Waziristan province, a deal which was panned in strategic circles as a sell-out to extremists at the expense of US and NATO ground troops in Afghanistan.
Undeterred by the criticism, the Bush subsequently persuaded Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who is vehemently opposed to the deal, to ’wait and see’ how the Pakistani deal works.
Now comes advice from Republican Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist that the Bush administration should consider bringing Taliban back into the power equation in Kabul.
Arguing that Taliban fighters were "too numerous and too popular" to be defeated, Frist told reporters after a visit to Afghanistan last weekend that "You need to bring them (Taliban) into a more transparent type of government... And if that’s accomplished, we’ll be successful."
"Approaching counterinsurgency by winning hearts and minds will ultimately be the answer. Military versus insurgency one-to-one doesn’t sound like it can be won. It sounds to me... that the Taliban is everywhere," he was quoted as saying.
The remarks sparked outrage in US political-strategic circles with critics panning Frist, who is a doctor by profession, of waving the white flag before elements who helped perpetuate 9/11.
"Senator Frist now suggests that the best way forward in Afghanistan is to coddle the Taliban by welcoming Taliban members into a coalition government, as if 9/11 had never happened," Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi chafed in a statement. Frist, who is a Republican Presidential aspirant in 2008, was also criticized by John Kerry.
Not that the Democrats have a great record with the fundamentalist yahoos first mid-wifed by the Pakistani military to get a foothold in Afghanistan and gain strategic depth against India, which prefers the more broad-based and pan-Afghan Northern Alliance.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2091218.cms
10 October 2006, 11:31
This is a surprise?! I’m sure the taliban is yet another creation of the NWO, just like al-ciada. So what would be different in Afghanistan.
And once again let me point out there’s no godamn difference between the friggin’ republicrats or the demicans.