In a bizarre and offensive interview with the editors of the Hotline, Dallas Congressman and newly elected National Republican Campaign Committee (NRCC) Chairman Pete Sessions (R-TX) described the Taliban as a “model” for the Republican insurgency in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Sessions comments go far beyond typical partisan rhetoric. His praise of the Taliban is dangerous and disrespectful to the thousands of American military families with loved ones serving and, too often sacrificing their lives, for our country.
Call on Pete Sessions to retract his remarks and apologize to his constituents, his colleagues and, most of all, to the service members and their families who are working to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban insurgency.
“Insurgency, we understand perhaps a little bit more because of the Taliban,…And that is that they went about systematically understanding how to disrupt and change a person’s entire processes…
“And we need to understand that insurgency may be required when the other side, the House leadership, does not follow the same commands, which we entered the game with.”…
When pressed to clarify, Sessions said he was not comparing the House Republican caucus to the Taliban, the Muslim fundamentalist group. “I simply said one can see that there’s a model out there for insurgency.”
– Pete Sessions
(Hotline, February 5, 2009)
Taliban Death Toll
Sessions refers to the Taliban with admiration even as 645 US soldiers have died in Afghanistan since 2001. (Source: http://icasualties.org/oef/ ) Currently there are 32,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan with 30,000 more expected to be deployed there within 2009. (CBS News January 17, 2008)
Taliban Brutality
During the 1990’s the Taliban, “imposed strict enforcement of fundamentalist Islamic law, banning movies, music and forcing women out of schools and into all-enveloping burqa clothing. The Taliban also provided a haven for Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda organization.” (New York Times, November 7, 2007)
The Taliban terrorizes Afghan citizens and kills American soldiers in order to disrupt the government the United States is supporting. In October, Taliban militants pulled as many as 30 people off a bus and beheaded them. (New York Times, October 19, 2008) The Taliban has also been blamed for spraying 11 girls with acid as they were headed to school. (New York Times, January 13, 2009)
