2010 Complete Election Coverage: Abdullah withdraws from runoff
Tags:
Text Size
- -
- +
- reset
- Challenger Abdullah Abdullah announced Sunday that he would not participate in Afghanistan's run-off elections. AP Photo
POLITICO 44
The main rival to Afghan President Hamid Karzai in next Saturday’s presidential runoff withdrew from the race on Sunday, effectively giving Karzai another term in office and casting further pall on the legitimacy of the Afghan government as Barack Obama considers sending thousands more troops to the country.
“I will not participate in the Nov. 7 election,” Abdullah Abdullah, Karzai’s chief opponent, told thousands of supporters at a rally, because a “transparent election is not possible.”
During his speech and in a news conference with reporters afterwards, Abdullah seemed to carefully weigh his words, suggesting that he was leaving open the possibility of negotiating a power-sharing arrangement to participate in a unity government with Karzai.
Abdullah did not call on his supporters to boycott next Saturday’s election; he repeatedly refused to say what he thought should happen next; he would not endorse or reject Karzai’s reelection as president; and he said he would “leave the door open” for additional talks with Karzai. He said his decision not to participate in the runoff was not made “in exchange for anything from anybody.”
The Nov. 7 runoff was called after reports of widespread fraud tarnished the results of the first election in August, which Karzai won with about 54 percent of the vote. The United Nations subsequently threw out millions of fraudulent ballots, dropping Karzai’s tally to less than 50 percent, the minimum necessary to avoid a runoff.
Abdullah claimed that much of the fraud could be traced to favoritism by the country’s electoral machinery, and he had ddemanded the resignation of Afghanistan’s independent election commissioner as a condition of participating in next Saturday’s vote. Karzai reportedly rejected the demand.
Whether the runoff will now be held was unclear. United Nations spokesman Aleem Siddique said it seemed impractical, telling the Associated Press, “It’s difficult to see how you can have a runoff with only one candidate.”
The Afghan election has developed into a serious headache for the Obama Adminisatration, which is considering a request by the U.S. military commander in Afghanistan to increase the number of U.S. troops there by as many as 40,000 soldiers. Many American politicians are reluctant to send more forces, noting that the Karzai government has been wracked by complaints of corruption and is increasingly ineffective in solving the country’s security problems.
Readers' Comments (10)
DFutureIsNow Party: Liberal
Reply #1
Nov. 1, 2009 - 1:47 PM EST
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
ANN&MITT; Party: Conservative
Reply #2
Nov. 1, 2009 - 2:12 PM EST
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
J. E. Dundee Party: NA
Reply #3
Nov. 1, 2009 - 2:44 PM EST
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
J. E. Dundee Party: NA
Reply #4
Nov. 1, 2009 - 2:46 PM EST
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
J. E. Dundee Party: NA
Reply #5
Nov. 1, 2009 - 2:47 PM EST
We suppose it is too much to hope that the administration's anti-al Qaeda Afghanistan strategy analysis includes an analysis of why we are targeted by al Qaeda to begin with. Although the counterproductive effect of civilian bombings and other intrusive aspects of our "military footprint" have been duly noted, the rabid rhinoceros in the room, which is the Israeli occupation, continues to be blithely ignored.
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
ANN&MITT; Party: Conservative
Reply #6
Nov. 1, 2009 - 3:42 PM EST
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
Starve the Beast Party: Conservative
Reply #7
Nov. 1, 2009 - 5:02 PM EST
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
J. E. Dundee Party: NA
Reply #8
Nov. 1, 2009 - 6:42 PM EST
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
nader paul kucinich ... Party: Independent
Reply #9
Nov. 1, 2009 - 9:19 PM EST
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
REALLYPROUDLIBERAL Party: NA
Reply #10
Nov. 1, 2009 - 10:21 PM EST
- Reply
- Quote
- Report Abuse
Read all 10 comments in our forumI don't like Karzai or this guy but sometimes it's better the devil you know than the devil u don't know.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
C A M P A I G N E R * I N * C H I E F
Mr. Obama waits until after the 3rd of November elections
to make a decision on Afghanistan , as our troops are in harms way .
Mr. Obama's playing politics for his own personal gain while Americans
are dying is appalling .
Mr. Obama without leadership we need to bring the troops home now .
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Our occupation of Afghanistan is doing more harm than good and in fact inspires anti-American terrorism. For instance, recently convicted terrorist Abdulla Ahmed Ali explained in his martyrdom video that he aimed to blow up US-bound passenger jets in revenge for our troops in Muslim lands. He said, "Enough is enough." "We have warned you so many times to get out of our land and leave us alone. You have persisted in trying to humiliate, kill, and destroy us." "Yes, taste that which you have made us taste for a long time."
Afghan President Karzai has stated that he wants us to stop the air attacks which kill civilians, and he wants to make peace with the Taliban. In a March 2009 PBS interview, Karzai said that "the Taliban are not enemies of Afghanistan or of the Afghan people. They are just countryside folks...Afghans." One must remember that it was not the Taliban who hit us on 9/11. In fact the Taliban condemned the 9/11 attacks and, as reported on BBC and others (9/13/01), the Taliban offered to hand over Osama bin Laden if the US provided clear and substantial evidence of his involvement. It is noteworthy that the Taliban had been working successfully with the UN to ban opium poppy cultivation. In 1999, Afghanistan produced 4,000 tons of opium, 75% of the world's supply. Then Mulla Mohammed Omar, the Taliban supreme leader banned opium poppies, calling it un-Islamic, and jailing farmers until they agreed to destroy their crops. Farmers switched to other crops like wheat and onions, and in 2001 Afghanistan's opium crop was down to 185 tons.
Unfortunately, we ignored the Taliban offer to help us capture bin Laden, and we invaded instead. Now Afghanistan produces 90% of the world's opium, and bin Laden is still free. President Obama says our mission in Afghanistan is to go after Al Qaeda, but Al Qaeda is now in Pakistan where our troops are not allowed. Furthermore, Al Qaeda has spread around the globe to places like Yemen, Somalia, Sudan, Mali, Mauritania, etc. We can't occupy the whole world. Addressing legitimate grievances of the Muslim world by ending our occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan and ending Israel's occupations is a far better way to combat terrorism.
In a 9/14/09 audiotape, Osama bin Laden addressed the American people, saying once again that "the cause of the quarrel with you is your support of your Israeli allies who have occupied our land, Palestine." He declared that not only Muslims but also Americans suffer because of the US Israel Lobby. He described the Palestinians under siege in Gaza who were pounded with US-made incendiary phosphorus bombs, and he called on the American people to achieve peace and security by freeing ourselves from the Israel Lobby neocons who dictate our foreign policy.
Certainly no one deserves to live under foreign occupation. President Obama has said that we are in Afghanistan to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al Qaeda. However, al Qaeda has now spread around the world, and we manage to successfully kill al Qaeda leaders in various countries without US military occupation. For instance, US Special Operations and attack helicopters killed a most-wanted al Qaeda ringleader in Somalia, (The New York Times 9/15/09), and a US missile-armed drone killed an al Qaeda commander in Pakistan (The New York Times 9/18/09).
Although it is said that we are in Afghanistan to prevent the establishment of an al Qaeda haven, former CIA counterterrorism chief Paul Pillar wrote in a Washington Post op-ed (9/16/09) that the notion that terrorists require such a haven is unproven: "The preparations most important to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks took place not in training camps in Afghanistan but, rather, in apartments in Germany, hotel rooms in Spain and flight schools in the United States."
Clearly preventing al Qaeda recruitment is very important, and there is no question that, just as in Palestine, our occupation of Afghanistan, with our civilian bombings, etc, fuels anti-Americanism. Even massive aid hand-outs does not necessarily win hearts and minds, as pointed out by Andrew Wilder, a Tufts University research director in a Boston Globe op-ed 9/16/09. Our aid often fuels massive corruption, and the Taliban's promises of better security, justice, and less corruption are more important to the people than new roads.
This is no doubt one reason Afghanistan president Karzai wants to negotiate a peace with Taliban leader Mullah Omar. The US government opposes this and in fact appears to oppose Karzai who has called for an end to our civilian bombings, a timeline for our withdrawal, etc. In fact, American UN official Peter Galbraith was recently criticized by his UN boss, Norwegian Kai Eide, who correctly said that it isn't the UN's role to appear to be taking sides in the election. (See The Wall Street Journal 9/16/09) (Peter Galbraith incidentally has been a longtime outspoken proponent of Kurdish autonomy/independence.)
Dragging out the political election turmoil makes peace talks less likely and prolongs our occuption indefinitely. As noted in The Christian Science Monitor 9/13/09, it costs 50% more to keep a soldier in Afghanistan, with its rugged mountainous terrain, than in Iraq. However, Israel Lobby neocons are pushing for more US troops in Afghanistan, just as they pushed for war with Iraq. For instance, Israel Lobby neocon William Kristol, son of the late neocon godfather Irving Kristol, founded the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) which sent the notorious 1998 letter to President Clinton calling for a "willingness to undertake military action" to remove Saddam Hussein. PNAC faded away after the Iraq debacle but appears to have resurfaced. William Kristol has now helped found a new organization, The Foreign Policy Initiative, which has just sent a letter to President Obama calling for a bigger military footprint in Afghanistan. It was signed by many of the same people who signed the 1998 PNAC letter. (See The Wall Street Journal 9/16/09).
The Israel Lobby neocons want an indefinite US military presence in Afghanistan to serve as a base from which to attack Iran, Pakistan, and all of Israel's many enemies who object to Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine. And thus the Jewish settlements increase along with al Qaeda recruitment.
For decades, the Israel Lobby-dominated media has made sure that Americans never connect these dots. How many Americans are aware that the Arab oil embargo in the 70's was because of our support of Israel's illegal occupations? Al Qaeda's leader bin Laden keeps trying to wake Americans up, as in his 9/14/09 audiotape, when he reiterated the fact that al Qaeda hates us because we subsidize Israeli atrocities and war crimes.
Israel's military footprint is more ghastly than ours. During their recent scorched-earth invasion of Gaza, besides massacring 1400 and wounding God-knows-how many more, Israel has made sure that all survivors keep suffering, by bulldozing their farmlands, bombing their one operational flour factory, their chicken farms, etc. They might have considered salting Palestinian fields, but their modern equivalent is military uranium residue.
Meanwhile al Qaeda continues to spread around the world. Will the Israel Lobby neocons next be instructing us to occupy Somalia in order to prevent an al Qaeda base there? Americans would like to end our occupations but we are told we must stay indefinitely because of al Qaeda. Yet bin Laden informs us that it is because of our occupations and support of Israel's occupations that we are under attack. It is time to sever relations with the War Crimes State of Israel and bring our troops home.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
J. E. Dundee ,
What part of Israel are the Israeli occupying ?
Isn't it wondeful how the Israeli live with peace and respect
with all the peaceful Islamic nations ?
Do you think that the radical Islamic Jihadist care that Israel and
the U.S.A believe in the right of self defense and peace through strength ?
Do you support the Right to Keep and Bear Arms for self defense ?
Don't you hate the progressive liberals that will not let me protect
myself just so they can get a thrill up there leg ?
What was the name of England's Prime Minister before Churchill that
appeased Adolph and allowed WWII ?
It's impossible for us to know what's going on in the inner circles of this issue with any certainty. The byzantine alliances that make up the political landscape in that part of the world are opaque even to most of the natives, as well to our most informed observers. It's like Iran, you think you know what's happening, but the tip of iceberg you're looking may not even be a part of the right iceberg.
Dundee, if there's anything worse than a fool, it's a fool who doesn't know he's a fool. Why not just stick with something simple, like "I hate Jews"?
This is certainly an important issue since our support of Israel's occupations and persecutions of the Palestinians has caused widespread anti-American hatred in the Arab/Muslim world.
For instance, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, mastermind of 9/11, said his hatred for America is due to our foreign policy bias towards Israel. (See The 9/11 Commission Report, page 147.)
Furthermore, in a May 1998 interview, shown in the PBS Fronttline documentary "Hunting bin Laden," Osama bin Laden said, "For over half a century, Muslims in Palestine have been slaughtered and assaulted and robbed of their honor and of their property. Their houses have been blasted, their crops destroyed." "The leaders in America and in other countries have fallen victim to Jewish Zionist blackmail. They have mobilized their people against Islam and against Muslims." "Your position against Muslims in Palestine is despicable and disgraceful." "The American government is leading the country towards hell.....We say to the Americans as people and to American mothers, if they cherish their lives and if they cherish their sons, they must elect an American patriotic government that caters to their interests and not the interests of the Jews." Bin Laden said our troops were in the Islamic Holy Land in Saudi Arabia in order to support Zionist expansionism.
A glance at the map of Palestine will tell us why we have been targeted by terrorists ever since Israel occupied all of Palestine in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and international law. Palestine since ancient times has been defined as the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. It has been occupied by many peoples including the Jews who took it in bloody genocidal conquests (well described in the Old Testament) from the Canaanites who had been living there before the Jews came. After the Jews, there were other occupiers. After Britain gave up its Palestine mandate, the UN divided Palestine roughly equally in 1947 so as to create an Arab state and a Jewish state. (See map#2) At that time Jews only owned 5.8% of the land in Palestine. As well-documented village-by-village in renowned Israeli historian Ilan Pappe's book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, the Jews forced the Arabs, who had lived there for 1300 years, to leave by means of terrorism and mass murder. By 1967 Israel had 78% of the land. (Map#3) Now Israel occupies all of Palestine in violation of UN Security Council resolutions and international law. 57 countries do not recognize Israel for this reason.
The Arab Peace Plan calls for Israel to go back to the 1967 border giving Israel 78% of the land in return for peace and recognition. Arafat agreed to this plan in 2002. Agreeing to giving Israel 78% is generous on the part of the Arabs but greedy Israel wants more, and that's why America is being destroyed fighting these never-ending wars on behalf of Israel's illegal occupation as well as being exposed to terrorist attacks like 9/11.
Afghanistan "Elections".
Dr Abdullah Abdullah speech.
Homey don't play no sham elections.
(neither should we)
CNN & FOX would talk over live speech.
CNN & FOX would not translate live speech.
CNN & FOX would cut to commercials during live speech.
(cnn & fox must wait for orders)
Now back to your regularly programed CNN & FOX Propaganda
History in Afghanistan repeats itself - again and again and again and again and again back thru time and the message is always the same. GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN!!!!!