Last weekend, I headed to Afghanistan with some of my colleagues to view firsthand the conditions on the ground as a follow up to the new strategy outlined by President Obama. We met with our troops and senior military officials and, from my perspective there is a lot of positive momentum coming from them. The morale of our troops is high and our commanders on the ground are confident we can win the tactical battle. The military is pleased with the President’s decision to send additional troops to assist with …
Senator John Kerry in his speech at the Council on Foreign Relations Monday criticized General McChrystal’s Afghanistan assessment for going “too far, too fast,” yet he failed to lay out an alternative strategy for success or to provide a convincing case against implementation of McChrystal’s specific recommendations. Kerry rightly admitted that a U.S. troop pullout could trigger a civil war in the country and destabilize neighboring Pakistan. He also acknowledged that the costs of failure in Afghanistan are “very real.” But his plan for moving forward lacks boldness and is …
The results of the investigations of voter fraud by the Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) have become critically important in determining the outcome of the August 20 Afghan election. The Afghan people will not be satisfied with the electoral process until the work of the ECC is completed, which could take several more weeks. A Karzai victory amidst unresolved allegations of vote tampering would leave his new government on shaky ground and damage the credibility of the coalition forces, which would be perceived as supporting a sham election. Commentators are increasingly …
Millions of Afghans yesterday risked their lives to vote in a presidential election despite blood-curdling Taliban threats to kill or chop off the ears, noses, or fingers of anyone that dared to vote. Despite at least 135 attacks that killed 26 people, the elections proceeded as scheduled, in defiance of Taliban threats. Voter turnout was dampened in areas where Taliban forces were strong enough to make good on their threats, primarily in southern areas that voted heavily in favor of Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2004. This could prevent Karzai …
