Posted on 10/05/2006 6:20:36 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
As you may know, I’ve spent the week traveling to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait and Jordan meeting with government officials, commanders on the ground, medical doctors, and our heroic men and women in uniform.
I visited a small town named Qalat south of Kabul and saw American personnel assisted by Romanian and Afghan allies working hard to build electrical and medical infrastructure in an effort to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Afghan farmers. I met with Iraqi doctors in Baghdad who’re struggling to do their jobs in an environment made extremely difficult by terrorism and crime. I witnessed the everyday valor of American medics at Balad Airbase in northern Iraq who’ve maintained a 97% survival rate for their patients.
In my visit to southern Afghanistan, it is clear the Taliban are aggressively recruiting and attempting to build support in that region.
But my visit also confirmed that the battle against the Taliban cannot be won by the military alone. Taliban fighters are coming across the southern border into Afghanistan. They must be eliminated. One of their major objectives is to recruit local Afghans who are farmers by day, putting arms in their hands by night. To prevent the Taliban from succeeding we must win the hearts and minds of the Afghans targeted for recruitment through job creation and government provision of enabling services such as education and health care. A government that is free, democratic and respectful of human rights and that at the local level creates jobs and a better life will defeat the Taliban’s aggressive initiatives. However, Taliban fighters should in no way be a part of the government.
Much remains to be accomplished, but I'm confident that we are making tremendous progress in hunting down and killing the murderers of Islamic fascism, in stabilizing the democratic governments of Afghanistan and Iraq and in winning the generational struggle that is the War on Terror.
But don’t take my word for it, read the letter that Al Qaeda’s leadership wrote to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last December. The letter was seized from Zarqawi’s safe house after coalition forces killed him on June 7, 2006 and it was released by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point just last week.
The letter’s author speaks on behalf of Al Qaeda’s senior leadership and writes to Zarqawi, "They wish that they had a way to talk to you and advise you … however, they too are occupied with vicious enemies here. They are also weak, and we ask God that He strengthen them and mend their fractures. They have many of their own problems… Know that we, like all the mujahidin, are still weak. We are in the stage of weakness and a state of paucity. We have not yet reached a level of stability."
While Al Qaeda’s leadership despairs of its own weakness, they severely chastise Zarqawi for his mistakes in Iraq, particularly for alienating Sunni tribal leaders and religious authorities. Zarqawi is urged to win the hearts and minds of Iraqis by waiting a bit longer to kill them: "if we come and kill some people whom we know to be corrupt and treasonous, but who are respected and beloved by the people, then this leads to great trouble and it is an act against all of the fundamentals of politics and knows best and leadership … when God opens the way, and we have the wherewithal, then we can behave differently in accordance with what is appropriate for that time."
This strategy is failing, as the Sunni tribes of Iraq increasingly recognize that the totalitarians of Al Qaeda plan to liquidate them in due course. Indeed, just this week, the leaders of 25 of 31 tribes of al-Anbar province pledged to work with the Iraqi government and Prime Minister Maliki to root out the foreign jihadists plaguing their country with violence and instability.
In Afghanistan and Iraq, we must continue to isolate our murderous opponents and rally the people of these nations behind free and democratic governments capable of providing security, creating jobs, and developing essential services. Having traveled throughout the region this week, I know that our men and women in uniform are strongly committed to exploiting Al Qaeda’s weaknesses, to winning hearts and minds through national reconciliation and a vision of a better future, and to victory over the terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Bill Frist, M.D.
VOLPAC Post Office Box 158552 Nashville, TN 37215 Office: (615) 386-0045
The documents (including this letter) were seized from the rubble of Zarqawi’s safe house on June 7 following its destruction in a US air strike, as well as in a series of subsequent raids in Baghdad.
The prime minister’s office, citing one of the documents, disclosed that Zarqawi aimed to widen the rift between the United States and Iran with kidnappings and assassinations against US interests falsely attributed to Iran.
In what the government dubbed Zarqawi’s “plan of death and destruction”, he voiced doubt whether “America is truly an enemy of Iran because of the large support that Iran provided America in its wars against Afghanistan and Iraq”.
“On that basis, it is vital to work towards inflating the danger of Iran to America, and show America and the West in general the real danger presented by Iran,” according to the document.
Earlier reports on the documents found at the safe house showed that Al-Qaeda was looking to stir up conflicts between the Shias and US forces as well as between various Shiite leaders.
The group also planned to carry out terrorist attacks in the West and then leave evidence at the sites implicating the Iranians, according to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s office.
Zarqawi’s organization was also going to spread misinformation that Iran had weapons of mass destruction, including biological and chemical weapons..
Dr. Bill Frist From Tennessee. Good man. Great doctor. Terrible Politician.
Iran...Support...US ?!?!??!
Somebody's spent way too much time in Afghanistan's opium crop fields, I perceive.
Frist and Hastert are the reason the Republicans are in the mess they are in this election season. It takes leadership and fortitude to herd cats.
What leadership or fortitude is there in blaming our own?
For this is nothing but playing the enemy's game for them.
Put a little of the blame on the MSM, a traitorous political opposition, and a complacent and naive public.
And how many on this site can state that they've done everything they could - instead of being mere chattering voyeurs/spectators...
That's major progress.
I don't think you should dismiss his political skills like that. He has a difficult job trying to get the RINOs and frightened Republicans in line in this climate. I agree it'd be nice to see more consensus among real and nominal Republicans, but don't know that anyone could lead the likes of McCain, Hagel, Chaffee, etc., all of whom are acting out their own agendas.
None. Leadership and fortitude are not necessarily related to blaming our own. But that's nitpicking your real point which I will address. I am a Republican and will vote Republican in Nov and urge all conservatives to come to the defense of the poor pitiful Republicans only to shield us from a worse fate of being governed by dems. But jeez one would have to be an idiot to not agree that the Republican Party is starved for leadership. And strong leadership could have helped gather more cats into the herd to hold off the dems and get more conservative legislation accomplished. Help not completely fix because we have the MSM propaganda and other factors. But Frist and Hastert are part of the problem in that they do not possess the necessary leadership and speaking skills we need to herd the cats.
Newt Gingrich did not seem to have trouble keeping RINO' House members in line.
I can't thank you enough for posting this. And huge thanks to Dr. Frist.
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