Afghanistan:Defining An Overall Post Election Strategy

Paris is currently hosting international talks on Afghanistan with the participation of 25 countries and organizations, in the context of  a contentious election aftermath. The meeting comes 2 days after General McChrystal presented a gloomy assessment, yet to be made public, of the situation after an 8 years war. McChrystal is calling for a shift in military strategy as foreign leaders review their own options and commitment to Afghanistan.

The envoys, gathered in France, are also dealing with an election which many independents observers describe now as barely legitimate. Not only the claims of massive fraud, made by Hamid Karzai’s opponent Abdullah Abdullah, are piling up to more than 2,500 complaints currently under investigation, but even more significantly the turnout is expected to be as low as 30 to 35 percent. With ballots from half of the polling stations already counted, Hamid Karzai  is still leading Abdullah Abdullah, but it seems more and more likely that he will be coming short of the 50 percent of the votes needed to avoid a run-off.

During a press conference, after today’s meeting, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner renewed his commitment to Afghanistan.

“Western troops cannot leave Afghanistan until the region has been made secure. We want to bring our decisive support to the Afghan population, with projects linked to agriculture, health and education. Of course for that to be possible, we need to bring security,” said Kouchner.

For his part US envoy, Richard Holbrooke, suspected by some in the diplomatic community of pushing for an election run-off, made the following statement: “We have no candidates and no preference as to a first round or a run-off. Our advocacy is for a fair process overseen by the Independent Electoral Commission taking into account the decision of the Electoral Complaints Commission.”

Richard Holbrooke was also asked some tough questions by Radio France Internationale’s William Niba.

RFI:“Do you want Karzai to be re-elected?”

RH:“The US completely respect the electoral process. We will work with whomever is elected. All we want is for the electoral process to be fair and express the will of the people.”

Richard Holbrooke was quick to categorized his reported tense relationship with Karzai as rumors, despite statement made on the matter by a US embassy spokesperson just a few days ago.

General McChrystal & Richard Holbrooke  are presenting the glass as half full, but more & more  Americans are starting to think that the Afghan’s glass is more than half empty. A poll released Tuesday by CNN/Opinion Research Corp. showed that opposition to the war is now at 57 percent, an 11 percentage point increase since April.