socialmedian: The great Afghan U-turn ignores reality

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Source: guardian.co.uk Politics

Nov 03, 2009

Summary

The US and UK are in denial about the situation in Afghanistan – for a start, they should stop channelling aid through Kabul

The British, and other western governments, are going through the most extraordinary contortions as they try and make the most of the chaos in Afghanistan. First, they said, there had to be a second round of presidential elections, as demanded by the Afghan constitution once the electoral commission decreed that, in light of the fraud involved, Karzai had not won 50% of the votes.

Karzai said a second round was unnecessary. The US and Britain said it was needed in the interests of "credibility" and "legitimacy".

When Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai's rival, withdrew on the grounds that a second round would also have been tainted by corruption, the US and Britain, in a remarkable, though perhaps understandable, U-turn, welcomed Karzai's first-round victory.

That first round of elections may have been subjected to serious fraud but Karzai would have won the second round in any case, ran the argument.

Moreover, the Afghans did not really understand w

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