Lynn C. Woolsey: “A gentleman from my district, Will Bennett of Santa Rosa, recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Santa Rosa Press…”

“A gentleman from my district, Will Bennett of Santa Rosa, recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat and made an excellent point. He noted that Afghan President Hamid Karzai had said of the Taliban, ``They are not the enemy. They are the sons of this land.'' As Mr. Bennett points out, then who is the enemy? ``Is this a pretend war,'' he asks. How can we possibly win a war in which our chief ally doesn't share our vision of who is the enemy? But then you realize that maybe the U.S. approach to the Taliban is closer to Karzai's than we'd be comfortable admitting. Because in certain respects we're treating them more like a vendor than like an enemy. It turns out our own contracting practices in Afghanistan may actually be putting money in the hands of the very Taliban insurgents we're trying to drive from the country--the very people who are killing our troops, the very organization that provided safe haven for al Qaeda to plot 9/11.”