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Frist favors adding Taliban to Afghan government

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published October 3, 2006

QALAT, Afghanistan - U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday that the Afghan war against Taliban guerrillas can never be won militarily and urged support for efforts to bring "people who call themselves Taliban" and their allies into the government.

The Tennessee Republican said he learned from briefings that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated on the battlefield.

"You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government," Frist said during a brief visit to a U.S. and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. "And if that's accomplished, we'll be successful."

Afghanistan is suffering its heaviest insurgent attacks since a U.S.-led military force toppled the Taliban in late 2001 for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

Based on reports from U.S., NATO and Afghan officials, 2,800 people have been killed nationwide so far this year. The count, which includes militants and civilians, is about 1,300 more than the toll for all of 2005.

The top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, said last month that while the Taliban enemy in Afghanistan is not extremely strong, the Taliban's numbers and influence have grown in southern sections of the country.

Frist said asking the Taliban to join the government was a decision to be made by Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Karzai's spokesmen were not available for comment.

Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, who is accompanying Frist on his trip, said that 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.

Frist said he had hoped the United States would be able to withdraw its forces from Afghanistan soon. But he said the 20,000 U.S. troops in the country are still needed to support the NATO alliance, which will assume direct control over most military operations here.

[Last modified October 3, 2006, 00:57:30]