You couldn't make this stuff up.

Dkos:

Bill Frist has just put the final stake in the heart of the myth of Republican toughness on national security.

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

Huh? No, really. Huh?

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.

The Tennessee Republican said he had learned from briefings 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," 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."Talk about the soft bigotry of low expectations.

What about Mel Martinez, who was also on the trip?

Sen. Mel Martinez, a Republican from Florida accompanying Frist, said 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.

"A political solution is how it's all going to be solved," he said.

Sadly, it bears repeating: Taliban = Al Qaeda. They are joined economically, ideologically, and operationally at the hip.

Republicans everywhere are having their heads explode. Read on...

Malkin's Hot Air is waving a different sort of white flag, courtesy of Allahpundit:

If we're going to do this, just pull everyone out. Don't lend an imprimatur of legitimacy to it by shepherding these medieval savages into a U.S.-backed government. Pull out, admit defeat, and let the Taliban take back the country through force. Then we can really and truly be back to September 10, 2001. Minus a skyscraper or two.

Update: Ace says he's done with the GOP. So am I. That's it.

Awwww boys, cutting and running so soon?