AP reports: 

U.S. Senate majority leader calls for efforts to bring Taliban into Afghan government

QALAT, Afghanistan U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Monday 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.

Now let's get this straight: "the Taliban and their supporters" are the very people who attacked us on 9/11 and started Bush's "War on Terror" - Mullah Omar, Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Al Zwahiri, and the rest of Al Qaeda.

On 9/18/01, Congress (including Bill Frist) adopted the Authorization for Use of Military Force, which was a declaration of war against those responsible for 9/11 - led by Bin Laden, Al Zwahiri, and Mullah Omar.

This Congressionally-authorized War against Al Qaeda and the Taliban has not ended. The U.S. has 20,000 troops in Afghanistan waging this war every day. According to George Bush, the "War on Terror" will never end.

When we are at war, our goal is to kill our enemies. Yet Bill Frist wants to put our permanent enemies in power!!!

Imagine if the Senate Majority leader had proposed putting Hitler in charge of France during World War II, or putting Hirohito in charge of China. Treason? You bet.

Yet that is precisely what Bill Frist is proposing.

Thanks to last week's Military Commissions Act of 2006, this clearly makes Frist an enemy combatant subject to the new "military commissions."

Any person subject to this chapter who, in breach of an allegiance or duty to the United States, knowingly and intentionally aids an enemy of the United States, or one of the co-belligerents of the enemy, shall be punished as a military commission under this chapter may direct.

The fact that Bill Frist is a U.S. citizen does not exempt him, because the law covers "any person."

The fact that Bill Frist is a Member of Congress covered by the Speech or Debate clause does not exempt him, because the clause explicitly excludes treason - aiding our enemies in time of war.

Bill Frist's proposal makes him an Enemy Combatant. He should be sent to Guantanamo and held without trial for the rest of his life. Better yet, he should be sent to a secret CIA prison where he is interrogated using "alternative methods" that are only illegal if they cause death or organ failure. Even better, he should be "extraordinarily rendered" to a country that tortures prisoners without any limits at all.

The Republican Congress led by Bill Frist gave George Bush these unlimited tyrannical powers just last week. As soon as Bush signs this evil bill, he should it immediately to Frist - or be impeached.

Update 1: Frist's "modest proposal" has finally pushed rightwingers over the edge. Here's the Ace of Spades:

I don't need the goddamned Republican Party in power to sign "peace" deals with terrorists. I can get that easily enough from the Democratic Party. I've supported these vacuous, cowardly, inept, corrupt idiots for one reason-- to fight terrorists.

if they want to sign peace deals with them, that's their decision. I and others can make another decision. The country may move in this direction, but we hardly have to endorse the decision by voting in favor of Quislings.

At least the Democrats talk tough about sending more troops to Afghanistan and killing Taliban fighters and capturing bin Ladin.

If that really is no longer a GOP prirority, then I am no longer a member of the GOP.

November 7 can't come soon enough for me.

Update 2: Frist now claims the AP story "badly distorts my remarks":

The Taliban is a murderous band of terrorists who’ve oppressed the people of Afghanistan with their hateful ideology long enough. America’s overthrow of the Taliban and support for responsible, democratic governance in Afghanistan is a great accomplishment that should not and will not be reversed.

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.

National reconciliation is a necessary and an urgent priority … but America will never negotiate with terrorists or support their entry into Afghanistan’s government.

So Frist supports "national reconciliation" by persuading "moderate Islamists" to accept the "Afghan national government."

Clearly Frist wants to bring "moderate Islamists" into the Afghan government - just as the U.S. went to extraordinary lengths to bring Sunni insurgents into the Iraqi government.

In effect Frist is telling the Taliban that if they change their organizational name to "Islamists United" or something like that, they will be welcome in the Afghan government.

Unfortunately Frist's narrow rebuttal still makes him an Enemy Combatant, because he is aiding the "co-belligerants" of the Taliban under the loose definitions of the Torture Act.

Update 3: Rightwingers aren't buying Frist's "clarification". Here's the Rottweiler:

Oh, he speaks a good game about being misquoted out of context and everything, claiming that he didn’t say that vermin that call themselves Taliban should be included in the political process, “only” vermin that “might potentially sympathize” with the Taliban.

And that’s supposed to make us feel all warm and fuzzy again? Try again, you triangulating, two-tongued son of a bitch. So we’re supposed to be fine with having sacrificed the blood of heroes so that mongrels sympathizing with these animals…

…can become part of government?

No creature alive on this planet that can look at images like that one, or these, or these, or these, look at them and NOT immediately be filled with murderous rage and an uncompromising, holy determination to rip the living hearts out of the chest of every single one of the subhuman filth responsible, much LESS be “potentially sympathetic” toward them need to be part of any government, anywhere, ever.

They need to be dead.