AFGHANISTAN - A LESSON 200 YEARS OLD

The government urged a media blackout on any attacks from 0600 to 2000 during polling on Thursday and asked reporters to avoid the scene of such incidents.

Human-rights activists and journalists condemned the move. ... <cont>

It's a long way away.

That ******* rape act makes me want to go and kill people.

I know it's wrong, but that's what I feel like doing.

Mr Karzai's pre-election vote-buying spree is seen as a sell-out on women's rights and on the aspirations of those who fear the power of near-feudal warlords.

It has been confirmed that he has defied world outrage by quietly codifying in law the right of some Shiite men to withhold food from their wives if they did not respond to their husbands' demands for sex.

The wording of the bill was tinkered with after US President Barack Obama declared it ''abhorrent'', but it still gifts exclusive guardianship of children to their fathers and grandfathers where their parents have opted for - or are pressured into - Shiite marriage contracts.

Human rights groups claim the law contravenes the Afghan constitution and international treaties. But more important to Mr Karzai was his bid to stitch up the Shiite vote - about 20 per cent of the population - which he believes can be delivered by the law's principle backer, the Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Asef Mohseni.

Afghans are acutely aware of the perpetrators of the worst human rights abuses in their country. The Taliban era was bad, but worse was the mindless death and destruction of the early to mid-1990s, when the Mujahideen factions, who defeated the Soviets, fought senselessly for control.

Many of the most notorious are part of today's circle of power - and some rode back into that circle on the back of US tanks in 2001, when they were recruited to pursue al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

"Some of the people from the 1990s … are coming back to power through deals with Hamid Karzai and other candidates," said Afghan human rights commissioner Nader Nadery.

It is widely believed that Mr Karzai has done deals with six warlords. Foreign diplomats believe the deals grant warlords protection from prosecution and freedom for jailed associates, cabinet posts, provincial governorships and key posts in the police and military.

The Hazara warlord, Mohammad Mohaqiq, went public early this month, claiming he had been promised five cabinet posts and two vice-presidencies, two new Hazara provinces and a string of development projects.

But Mr Karzai may have made himself a political eunuch by subletting the power and treasure of the presidency.

One diplomat said: "A run-off [in the election] is too dangerous for him now - already, he has promised too much and what he would have to offer in another round would bankrupt the nation.

"He is bartering the power of the state for the moment of the election, surrendering a great deal to those who will mobilise support for him. They will be comparing notes too - it could be very volatile."

Many in the drug trade prospered after the invasion because of the US reliance on them to pursue the Taliban.

In 2005, interior minister Ali Jalali quit, reportedly because of Mr Karzai's refusal to act on a list of 100 drug kingpins Mr Jalali had compiled, which included 13 former or serving governors and four former or serving cabinet ministers.

When I asked a top foreign diplomat this week if any of his colleagues were exploring the links between drug money and political patronage, he replied: "No, that's taboo. But you assume drug money goes everywhere. The Taliban gets only a small portion and that means that a big portion goes to people inside the system."

The wealth amassed in the name of the President's brothers is the source of constant speculation.

The Karzai family's legitimate businesses include mines, the country's only cement factory, the national Toyota franchise and property.

Foreign diplomats and intelligence officials who plead with Mr Karzai for some action get the brush-off, in the form of requests for the kind of evidence that does not exist.

When evidence was available - implicating the President's brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai - it was ignored by the Bush administration and a key witness was jailed by Kabul on what was seen as a trumped-up charge.

Writing in The Wall Street Journal, the presidential candidate running third in the polls, former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani, accused Mr Karzai of turning Afghanistan into one of the world's most corrupt states.

"He has formed alliances with criminals. He has appointed governors and police chiefs who flout the rule of law. And he has turned a blind eye to a multibillion-dollar drug trade that has crippled growth and enabled the insurgency to flourish," Mr Ghani said.

Five years on from the euphoria of the 2004 poll, Thursday's contest will be a test of the control that warlords and ethnic and religious leaders wield over their followers.

The world will be watching. And in the homes of the hundreds of dead servicemen in the West, grieving families might well wonder: what was the cause for which their sons and daughters died?

You know what really surprises me? Apart from this thread (which hasn't been heavily contributed to) I can't find any other threads, nor any discussion about the Afghanistan election on A2k. (Perhaps I'm looking in the wrong places?) I find this really odd, given the election is tomorrow (20th August) ..... & also because many A2Kers live in countries which whose military troops are fighting in Afghanistan right now .. The US, the UK, Australia, etc, etc, etc ...

. I don't understand: we are spending huge amounts of money on this war & there have been heavy casualties ... so why so little interest or desire to discuss this issue?

Because in AMerica only about 3 in 100 people has even a foggy notion of what Afghanistan is about, and about what is at stake.

and the western governments don't seem to know or care much about that part of the world either or do they ? hbg

The Afghanistan/Pakistan/India region is highly unstable and with Nuclear weapons, thus is very important. It is also almost never been able to be tamed, thus the lack of interest from Europe and Asia in trying to deal with the problem.

wouldn't it make sense to at least TRY to have good relations with those nations ?
especially if the region is indeed considered IMPORTANT .
(of course , that takes time and patience - which we usually don't have . we are not used to long , drawn-out negotiations - and many cups of tea ; but may still have to learn how to drink tea . )
it seems to me that for the last several hundred years , the various western powers have tride to IMPOSE their will on them - rather unsuccessfully imo .hbg

wouldn't it make sense to at least TRY to have good relations with those nations

many western business people had to learn the art of drinking tea with japanese business people before the japanese would be willing to discuss business with them . and that still seems to be a prerequisite to any business relations even today

In Afghanistan in particular and also Pakistan there is not much business to be done

Quote:
That ******* rape act makes me want to go and kill people.

I know it's wrong, but that's what I feel like doing.

I fully understand your fury, Deb. It's disgusting.

you guys are forgetting the cash crop from Afghanistan.

there is lots of business done there, it is just not publicized...

A leading group of election observers say there was widespread voting fraud and intimidation during Thursday's presidential election in Afghanistan.

Stuffed ballot boxes, illiterate voters being told who to vote for and biased officials were cited by Afghanistan's Free and Fair Election Foundation.

However EU monitors said that despite widespread intimidation and violence, the vote was generally good and fair.
There have been rival claims of victory but no winner has been announced.

The chief EU observer said it was still early days in assessing the election.

The Free and Fair Election Foundation's provisional report also details accounts of multiple voting, underage voting and election officials being ejected from polling stations by representatives of candidates.

Paul Koring

Washington " From Monday's Globe and Mail
Last updated on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2009 03:29AM EDT


.The war in Afghanistan is going so badly " “it is serious and it is deteriorating” " that America's top military commander Admiral Mike Mullen was grimly preparing a war-weary public Sunday for the possibility that many more U.S soldiers may soon be needed to quell the raging Taliban insurgency.

This already has been the bloodiest summer for both foreign troops and Afghans since 2001.

U.S. commanders are expected to ask President Barack Obama " who campaigned on getting Americans troops out of Iraq so they could focus on winning in Afghanistan " for three or four additional brigades (as many as 20,000 more soldiers) next month.

Sunday's high-profile round of televised interviews launched a campaign to drum up flagging public support.