I NEVER IMAGINED WRITING THESE THREE WORDS BUT... FRIST WAS RIGHT

I used to fancy myself a photographer. I took pictures constantly when I was in college and many years after I graduated I taught darkroom technique and also started my career in the rock business as a photographer. Alas, in between graduating college and snapping rock stars I had been so inspied by Ram Das' Be Here Now that I decided taking photos was preventing me from living in the moment so I dramatically threw away my camera... on the verge of a 2 year drive from London to Kathmandu (and back). A good chunk of that time was spent in Afghanistan, one of my favorite countries-- and I use the word lightly-- in the world. But no photos.

In case you haven't guessed, I'll get to what Frist was right about in a second. But even more unlikely than me thinking the amateur cat vivisectionist was right about something, is me convincing myself that Bush got anything right. But his decision to go after Al Qaeda and the Taliban after 9/11 was not as bad a decision as virtually everything else he's ever done. Of course, he managed to muck it up badly-- predictable to anyone who had ever examined his totally mucked up life-- a kind of anti-Midas touch kind of guy, our Dubya.

Ok, so as lame as Frist is, and they really do not come any lamer, he stumbled across Afghanistan and immediately noticed something is seriously wrong. His perscription isn't going to do anyone-- not the least of all himself-- any good, but he's correct when he says it's a war we're not going to win. We could have. In fact we kind of did. But Bush is clueless, Cheney and Rumsfeld are literally mad, and Rove is obsessed with domestic power. And these four set-- or didn't set-- the long term goals and the short term plans.


It was hopeless from day one. What was the mission? To decapitate the Taliban and Al Qaeda and drive them out of the country? OK, we did that. Bush should have patted himself on the back, turned the joint over to some Muslim peacekeepers and come home a hero and had a nice benign presidency. Instead, he decided to do what no king or emperor or commissar has ever been able to do before him: occupy the country (not to mention also occupy Iraq). That's when you wish someone in the shop either knew a little history or paid attention to someone who does. No such luck.

When Frist made his pronouncement a few days ago-- that we could never win militarily-- he may have been committing career suicide but that doesn't make him wrong. Well, we could win militarily but not even the Soviets had the stomach for exterminating the entire population. I know you're going to think I'm joking or exaggerating or out of my mind-- and it certainly never gets talked about in the U.S. media-- but virtually all the men in Afghanistan are stoned all the time. And the hashish they smoke there never comes here. It's stronger than you could ever imagine. They fight to the death and die with smiles on their faces.

The Democrats are giving Frist a little shitty end of the stick right now and yucking it up about cuttin' and runnin' and white flags. But they'll be sorry if they ever come to power because they'll have to do something like what he's suggesting. Afghanistan will be theirs, not ours. It will be the last place on earth to be remade into an American suburb. It is so foreign in every way-- including in the way people reason-- that sooner or later the U.S. will have to do what the Russians did before us and what the British did before them... scram-- and more or less just hope the Afs' natural tendency to fight amongst themselves keeps them occupied. Remember when I said I used the term "country" lightly? Afghanistan may be a country in our eyes but it's only a country in their eyes when there's a common threat (i.e., us).

Frist, like Bush, a total coward, is already tap dancing about his proposal to bring the Taliban into a national unity government. But no Frist or Bush, nor any foreigner, will be telling the Afs who their government is. Count on that. Karzai will either be killed or move to the thriving Afghani community in the DC area.

The Afs don't have much (left) to lose but it is likely that a shrewder and less imperialistically-inclined American administration will be able to keep whoever takes over there from allowing terrorists to use it as a base against us. That's the most we can hope for. The rest was all hogwash and bluster and an excuse for some idiotic plans for an oil pipeline anyway.


UPDATE: COLIN POWELL REMINDS US THAT STAYING THE COURSE IS A BAD IDEA IN IRAQ TOO

Today's speech by Colin Powell is bad news for Bush, bad news for Lieberman, bad news for any Republican trying to fudge about what's going on with all Bush's badly managed, ill-conceived wars. John's got a clip that will show you why. Like I was just saying about Afganistan and the Afs, Powell explained that "Only the Iraqi people can resolve this." I bet Cheney is cussin' up a storm!