Don't Forget Frist!

I don't know whether he was jealous that everybody was watching the self-destruction of the House Republican leadership and the dissembling secretary of state or whether it was a selfless, if desperate, attempt to divert attention from those travesties by sacrificing himself, but Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist very effectively shot himself in the foot yesterday. On a trip to Afghanistan, Frist took note of the resurgence of the Taliban and suggested that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

[Frist] said the only way to win was to "assimilate people who call themselves Taliban into a larger, more representative government."

"Approaching counterinsurgency by winning hearts and minds will ultimately be the answer," Frist said. "Military versus insurgency one-to-one doesn't sound like it can be won. It sounds to me … that the Taliban is everywhere."

Of course, pretty much as soon as the story broke, Frist insisted that his statement had been taken out of context. That's quite an interesting concept, because I'm not sure in precisely what context such a statement would be acceptable. I suppose you could preface it with, "Here's something I don't believe that would be really stupid for me to say . . ." But after reassuring us that the Taliban is "a murderous band of terrorists" that we should have nothing whatsoever to do with, here's what he wrote on his VOLPAC blog:

Having discussed the situation with commanders on the ground, I believe that we cannot stabilize Afghanistan purely through military means. Our counter-insurgency strategy must win hearts and minds and persuade moderate Islamists potentially sympathetic to the Taliban to accept the legitimacy of the Afghan national government and democratic political processes.

So it's not the Taliban themselves, but just their sympathizers that we want to team up with. Thanks for the clarification, Bill!