U.S. in Delicate Spot as Fraud Claims Mount in Afghan Vote
No shit. Then there was this:
For the United States, the problem is twofold: the fraud complaints against Mr. Karzai are almost certain to undercut his legitimacy if he is sworn in for another term as president, and American officials want whoever is president to have credibility with the Afghan people and with the international community.What credibility? Does anyone not understand that Karzai is only going to last as long as American troops are there to keep him in power? If we leave, Karzai will last as long as Mohammad Najibullah did when the Soviets left and, if Karzai is foolish enough to stay, he will likely meet the same end.
Read the whole story: the favored resolution at this point is to bargain with Karzai's opponents and get them to drop their evidently truthful charges of fraud in exchange for cushy jobs in the new government.
ReplyDeleteReally? That's promoting democracy? He steals the election, his foreign backers argue that he'd probably just win the runoff anyway, so let's buy off the opposition with a promise that they can join in the looting.
What about the voters, you say? Well, hell...everyone knows the Afghan government doesn't really belong to the Afghans. I mean, yeah, we SAY stuff like that, but everyone knows we don't really mean it.
In democracies of the future official election results will automatically preserve the incumbent but the unofficial results will be used to divide the spoils of government. Now that's a cause worth fighting for!