Folks, quite the drama has been developing over in Afghanistan today:
First off, Abdullah Abdullah, the challenger that was running for the Afghan presidency against incumbent President Hamid Karzai, had decided to drop out of the election runoffs that were scheduled to be held this week, saying that the runoffs would be pointless since the Karzai-led government might commit fraud in his favor.
In response to this news, the Afghan government has called off the runoff elections and have moved to hand Mr. Karzai on a silver platter another term as Afghan president, another term of an apparently illegitimate man and his corrupt cronies (including his drug-tied, U.S. taxpayer bankrolled brother) running the show in the broken country.
And now, later on in the day, we have President Obama and the White House declaring that Mr. Karzai is the “legitimate” leader, saying that the rule of law prevailed in determining the outcome in this ever so divisive election. Mr. Obama even went as far as phoning Mr. Karzai and giving him a dose of eloquent diction, calling him about starting a “new chapter” in Afghanistan. Still with the fancy, but broad and empty language Mr. Obama?
The main point that I would like to make about this: Isn’t it a little disingenuous of Mr. Obama to give any semblance of legitimacy to Karzai. I mean, really, doesn’t Mr. Obama see how this will all look in the eyes of the Afghan people, America giving legitimacy to a corrupt government? Doesn’t he see how this might undermine stability in the region (probably even more that the declaration of Mr. Karzai as president) when the people over there see America being complicit with this corrupt regime?
-D.R.L.
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