Senator Frist Calls For Taliban’s Return
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
QALAT, Afghanistan — Senator Frist said yesterday 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 that Taliban fighters were too numerous and had too much popular support to be defeated by military means.
“You need to bring them into a more transparent type of government,” Mr. Frist said during a brief visit to an American and Romanian military base in the southern Taliban stronghold of Qalat. Mr. Frist said asking the Taliban to join the government was a decision to be made by President Karzai.
