Karzai ‘Wins’ a 2nd Term in Afghanistan. Oh, Crap.
by Nathan Hodge for Wired, 2 November, 2009
If you think the Afghanistan war effort was screwed up before, just you wait. President Hamid Karzai has won, by default, a second term as president after his main rival decided the elections were too corrupt to run in.
That means Afghanistan avoids a messy, logistically challenging runoff vote.
What, you guys think you're The Economist? Please. Is anything in Afghanistan not corrupt, logistically challenging and messy?
But it also leaves a kleptocratic system intact — and raises serious questions about what exactly the United States and N.A.T.O. are supposed to do next in Afghanistan. One of the primary goals in a counter-insurgency campaign to legitimise and win support for the local government. Which is kind of tricky, when the head of that government presided over a sham election.
I realise this is a defeatist American attitude, but has anyone besides Jon Stewart and John Oliver considered that there's really no point to holding Afghanistan? Load up the humanitarian visas, give the money you're spending on combat troops to UNICEF and there you go.
Of course, in our generation’s version of sending Jimmy Carter abroad to annoy foreign nations to death, we sent John Kerry there instead. Don't get me wrong, I love the Senior Senator from my state. But let's get real. You'd totally agree to absolutely anything if it meant getting him to shut up.
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