West hails Hamid Karzai as """legitimate""" president

[bascule]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/6488613/Afghanistan-West-hails-Hamid-Karzai-as-legitimate-president.html

 

So, who thinks things are all screwed up in Afghanistan? I do I do.

 

Seriously, WTF? I'm sure that Karzai gets the full support of the drug cartels. Shouldn't someone intervene here?

[CaptainPanic]

Karzai had full support of most Western countries even when the election committee said that the elections were a big fraud.

 

Only after extensive media coverage worldwide did the Afghans get a second election. And the only serious candidate suddenly withdrew... and all Western countries are happy. The same Western countries usually claim that they value democracy and freedom.

 

I think that Karzai is:

A puppet of a (bunch of) warlord(s) in Afghanistan who themselves are listening to someone from Washington/London (probably both).

 

I think that the Western allies chose to have the same guy in office there so they won't get any surprises. Any new president was a risk, although there was obviously the possibility of improvement. Even more instability is just around the corner in that country.

 

I think they argued that it's too early for completely fair elections. Better to have fake elections that might fool some people than to have real ones that might ruin the few meager results that were achieved so far in 8 years of war. (Before you scream that Afghans have the right for fair elections - Remember that there's a war going on there! Security comes before fair elections in importance).

[iNow]

The numbers suggest that Karzai would have won even if you took out all fraudulent votes. Lots of people don't like him, but they still think he's their best chance. It was almost specifically because his support is so high even absent the questionable ballots that Abdula Abdula dropped out.

 

He's going to be the one in charge for the time being. We need to find a way to move forward with that taken as a given.