Frist, the Taliban, and the problem with Afghanistan
Bill Frist actually has it right. It’s just that it comes about five years too late.
Frist Draws Criticism for Comments On Taliban – washingtonpost.com
Frist, who was traveling in Afghanistan, said Monday that Taliban fighters are too numerous and too popular to be defeated. “You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government,” he said. “And if that’s accomplished, we’ll be successful.”
You’re going to have to trust me on some of this. During the occupation by the then-Soviet Union, it became clear that the Soviets would not be able to hold Afghanistan for a couple of reasons. First, it is a country steeped in tribal traditions. It is a nomadic culture, fragmented and localized. The nature of leadership in Afghanistan begins and ends with the leaders of the different tribes. They have no use for any kind of centralized government outside of the cities, so when the Taliban comes and hands them weapons and says “defend your sheep”, they are acting to defend their sheep and if the one who threatens their sheep is Russian, or American or whatever, they’ll defend in small, ever-moving ways.
Second, Afghan terrain is treacherous. If you do not know it and were not born and raised there, you are at a serious disadvantage. There are areas so remote that reaching them involves days-long hikes on foot on paths that will make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.
This is why it was stupid for Bush to send troops to Afghanistan to hunt down Bin Laden. We still had ways to reach out to the Taliban. We ARMED the Taliban when the Soviets were there. The Soviets tried bombing Afghanistan into oblivion and still ultimately conceded defeat. But instead of learning from their mistakes, Bush was determined to repeat them. And repeat them he has, and then compounded the error by dropping the entire issue like a lead balloon.
Frist is right, in theory. I don’t know that there is a pathway toward building any kind of meaningful dialogue with the Taliban now, in light of the Bush Administration’s untrustworthy and dishonest approach toward the Middle East in general, and Afghanistan and Iraq.
Technorati Tags: Frist, Afghanistan, Iraq, Taliban, diplomacy
(edited to correct my erroneous geographical reference…Afghanistan and Iraq are not in the Middle East)