Posted on 10/06/2004 10:05:22 AM PDT by TexKat
U.S. Army soldiers leave their base in Zormat, some 120 km south of Kabul, to patrol the area October 4, 2004. Whatever the violence wreaked by the Taliban and its allies over the next few days, Afghanistan's first direct vote for a leader on Saturday is now unstoppable, the U.S. envoy to Kabul said. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Ahmad Zia Masood, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's running mate for Saturday's historic presidential election, escaped unhurt October 6, 2004 when a mine exploded under his convoy in the remote northeast of the country. Masood, brother of the late Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Masood, is seen campaigning in Kabul October 2. (Caren Firouz/Reuters)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai waves to supporters during a campaign rally at the Kabul stadium October 6, 2004. With just three days to go before historic elections, President Hamid Karzai urged Afghans to follow the example of their warrior ancestors and become heroes -- but of the ballot box and not the battlefield. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan
An Afghan man drinks in a car near the Kabul stadium October 6, 2004. With just three days to go before historic elections, President Hamid Karzai urged Afghans to follow the example of their warrior ancestors and become heroes -- but of the ballot box and not the battlefield. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan
Afghan soldiers stand on the track of the Kabul stadium and guard the grand stand as they wait for the arrival of Afghan President Hamid Karzai for a campaign rally Wednesday Oct. 6, 2004. Attackers set off a bomb as a convoy carrying Afghan President Hamid Karzai's vice presidential running-mate and other dignitaries passed along a road in northeastern Afghanistan on Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004 killing one man and injuring five others, officials said. Afghans will go to the polls on Oct. 9 in the country's first ever direct elections. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
Afghan women listen to a speech by President Hamid Karzai during a campaign rally at the Kabul stadium October 6, 2004. With just three days to go before historic elections, President Hamid Karzai urged Afghans to follow the example of their warrior ancestors and become heroes -- but of the ballot box and not the battlefield. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan
Afghan President Hamid Karzai speaks to his supporters during a campaign stop at the Kabul stadium Wednesday Oct. 6, 2004. Afghans will go to the polls on Oct. 9 in the country's first ever direct elections. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
Afghan President Hamid Karzai sips tea as he listens to elders who came from around Afghanistan to announce their support for him in Kabul Wednesday Oct. 6, 2004. Afghans will go to the polls on Oct. 9 in the country's first ever direct elections. (AP Photo/Mosadeq Sadeq)
A donkey crosses the river as transports ballot boxes between the Koh-i-Sarki-Khan's mountains toward Som Darreh's village in Faizabad, 320 km (200 miles) northeast of Kabul, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004. Donkeys are the only means of transport to distribute the electoral kits in the inaccessible areas of the Faizabad district due to the craggy geography. Afghans will to the polls on Oct.9 in the country's first ever direct elections. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A group of Afghan women wearing burqas head towards the center of Faizabad, 320 km (200 miles) northeast of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Locals cross the river over a bridgethat operates on ropes in Faizabad, 320 km (200 miles) northeast of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Oct 5, 2004. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
A sniper watches a crowd of supporters for Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a campaign stop in Ghazni, Afghanistan, 70 miles (110 kms) outside Kabul Tuesday Oct. 5, 2004. Afghans will go to the polls on Oct. 9 in the country's first ever direct elections. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
Afghan women hold pictures of presidential candidate Mohammad Mohaqiq during a campaign by Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Ghazni, some 120 km (75 miles) south of Kabul, October 5, 2004. Karzai made a speech telling a crowd of some 10,000 people that historic elections this weekend will deliver them from a quarter-century of war. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
An Afghan radio technician looks out form his Radio Afghanistan broadcast van during a campaign speach by Afghan presidential candidate Abdul Rashid Dostum in Kabul stadium Wednesday Oct. 6, 2004. Afghans will go to the polls on Oct. 9 in the country's first ever direct elections. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
Afghan presidential candidate Abdul Rashid Dostum waves during a campaign rally in Kabul stadium October 6, 2004. Afghanistan's historic election in three days time will spell an end to the gun in a nation which has ended a quarter-century of conflict, the top U.N. official in the country said on Wednesday. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Afghan presidential candidate Yunus Qanooni addresses an election rally at Kabul. Qanooni is considered to be Hamid Karzai's only serious challenger among a total of 18 presidential candidates.(AFP/Emmanuel Dunand)
Afghan's election staff receive voting instructions during a training session by a UN civic education officer, right, in Herat in Afghanistan Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004. Afghanista's first direct presidential elections will be held on October 9. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Afghan women receive voting instructions during a training session sponsored by Afghanistan's joint electoral management body in Faizabad, 320 km (200 miles) northeast of Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2004. Seventeen women learned about the voting process from U.N. education officers. Elections will be held on October 9. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
An analyst looks at data on computer screens at the election security operation center on the outskirts of Kabul October 6, 2004. Afghan President Hamid Karzai's running mate for Saturday's historic presidential election escaped unhurt Wednesday when a mine exploded under his convoy in the remote northeast of the country. REUTERS/Caren Firouz
Afghan presidential candidate Yunus Qanuni is escorted by security in Kabul's stadium during a rally October 5, 2004. Qanuni, one of 17 candidates challenging Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the presidency, held a rally for some 4,000 people in the capital's stadium. REUTERS/Desmond Boylan
A security guard escorts Afghan President Hamid Karzai during his second successful campaign stop outside the safety of the capital in Ghazni, some 120 km (75 miles) south of Kabul, October 5, 2004. Karzai made a speech telling a crowd of 10,000 people that historic elections this weekend will deliver them from a quarter-century of war. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood
Afganistan historical days ping.
Cheers to the Afgans...BTTT
PING.....
You know what .. if it wasn't for the debates where Bush and Cheney mentioned the election this week
The public wouldn't know about it ... The media/press and been pretty quiet on the topic
Afganistan historical days ping.
Yes they have and will continue to be until a) there is new violent activity attempting to undermine the elections, and/or b)Karzai wins and they (the media) take the opportnity to call him "selected" by the US
The MSM DOES not report any good news - unless it benefits the left.
An Afghan police looks at a damaged car from Ahmed Zia Massood's convoy outside the Afghan government office in Faizabad, 320 km (200 miles) northeast of Kabul, Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004. A convoy carrying Afghan President Hamid Karzai's vice presidential running mate was attacked in Badakhshan province Wednesday. Ahmed Zia Massood was unhurt, one person was killed and five others were injured in the roadside explosion. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Afghans make their way past Herat's historic minarets built more than 500 years ago in Herat, northwestern Afghanistan Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2004. Afghanistan's first direct presidential elections will be held on October 9. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian)
Supporters of Afghan President Hamid Karzai drum and dance during a campaign rally at the Kabul stadium Wednesday Oct. 6, 2004. Afghans will go to the polls on Oct. 9 in the country's first ever direct elections. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)
Relatives of Hamid Karzai, stand otuside the home where Karzai was born, he hasn't set foot in his Afghan village for years, but the residents are still cheering for its most famous son in Saturday's landmark election, and hoping a big payday will follow in his native town of Karz, a parched village of a few hundred mud houses on the edge of the main southern city of Kandahar, Afghanistan (news - web sites) Monday Oct. 4, 2004. His former home lies amid a maze of ruins in what was the center of the village until it was devastated in the war against Soviet occupation in the 1980s. Karzai's humble roots may have helped him develop a common touch that marks him out from some of his 17 rivals in the race to become Afghanistan's first popularly elected president. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Dalziel)
Local children run from a helicopter after it unloaded the ballot kits in Ghumaipayan Mahnow village some 410 kilometers (256 miles) northeast of Kabul, Monday, Oct. 4, 2004. By air is the only way to deliver the electoral material in the inaccessible areas of the Badakhshan province. A helicopter distributed on Monday 84 ballot boxes and electoral kits in 24 remote villages near Tajikistan's border to hold its first direct presidential vote on Oct. 9. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)
Thanks for the ping, 2, OXEN. (^:
Praying with you for our troops and allies in Afghanistan.
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Battalion Chaplain: Lt.UC Lussi, Emory C.
Gooooood Moorrnning Afghanistan!!! It is morning here at the moment. To have some time on one of these machines I need to get up before everyone else so they can do what they have to during the day. Sorry for not having updated my column in some time. But some of us have to work for a living. HAHAHAHA. Actually, I have been doing my job of looking after your Marines. Since we have been scattered over six different bases I’ve been busy trying to get around and seeing them. Because of flight schedules, movement of the troops, and other snags I’ve not been to every place yet. I have seen each company at least once though. Soon most of us will be in one place with a small group at another. Keeping up with everyone will be easier then.
Obviously being away from home and given the circumstances the Marines, on the whole, are doing well. The mindset of Marines seems to be different from others I’ve been around. Not to be simplistic or corny but they are Marines. They chose to be Marines. Want to be Marines. Train like Marines. Think like Marines. Therefore, they act like Marines. We’ve had tragedy and loss. Did it hurt? Yes. Does that change what we have to do? No. And those whom we lost would want us to keep our heads in the game and so we do. That is one way in which we honor them. As you think of your Marine pray for the families of those whose loss is so deep.
Regardless of what you hear through the grapevine, we’ll be home when we get home. That’s not to sound short or mean but to be realistic. There’s word that homecoming will be around the first of December. We were told that might be a possibility when we left. Well it’s most likely now. But as they say out West, “You saddled this horse, now ride it.” This horse wanders all over the place and seldom comes to the barn on time. But when it comes in it’ll be time for lots of TLC. So get your ducks together for a grand reunion. Remember not to get your ducks in a row. Just get them together in a loose flock on the pond so you can gather them up as you need them. Otherwise, if they’re in a row one good shot could kill them all.
Enough of the barnyard chatter. We’ll be home before you know it. It helps us to know that all of you are taking care of business back home. Thank you for loving and supporting us while we try to bring justice to the bad guys and safety, security, and stability for those who want to live in peace. God bless you and keep you till we meet again.
Chaps
SEMPER FIDELIS
Karzai's Running Mate Survives Attack (Afghanistan bombing )
Thank you for the thread and ping. As we come up on the next few days, hopefully we will see more good from Afghanistan.
Thanks for the great pictures.
And the ping.
-More to come...Special Ops, 31st MEU...thank you all.
(Campaigning to regain my FR search authority. Send Freepmail to Admin Moderator. *g*)
Wed Oct 6,12:04 PM ET
By Simon Cameron-Moore
KABUL (Reuters) - Afghan President Hamid Karzai's running mate for a historic presidential election narrowly escaped a bomb set off by Taliban guerrillas as the campaign closed on Wednesday.
But, just hours later, the president appealed to the militants to rejoin the mainstream.
"Thousands and thousands and thousands of the Taliban, they are the sons of the soil, they have every right as citizens as every other Afghan has," Karzai told a news conference. He said he was against only about 100 or so hardcore militants "who had committed atrocities."
Two of the 18 candidates for Saturday's poll said they were withdrawing in favor of Karzai. One was not considered to be very popular but the other, Sayed Ishaq Gailani, is from one of the country's best-known families.
Karzai has always been favorite to win, but Gailani's move could help him get the required 51 percent of the vote he needs to avoid a November run-off.
Vice-presidential candidate Ahmad Zia Masood, the brother of assassinated resistance hero Ahmad Shah Masood, was attacked in Faizabad, the capital of mountainous Badakhshan province in the remote northeast, where he had gone for a campaign rally.
Explosives planted in the road went off as the convoy in which he was traveling headed from the airport to the rally site, killing two people and injuring at least three others, local officials said.
Taliban official Mullah Dadullah claimed responsibility for the attack. "It was a remote-controlled bomb planted on a road side. But Masood's car missed it because it went off late," he told Reuters in a telephone call.
Badakhshan is far from the Taliban's southern stronghold. Although the attack appeared to demonstrate a far-flung capability of the guerrillas, who have vowed to derail the poll, there have been relatively few attacks outside the south.
And hope is growing that the election will pass off smoothly and perhaps mark a turning point for the impoverished nation which has suffered a quarter century of war.
"Afghans are convinced that a popularly elected, representative president is urgently needed in order to bring an end to the violence, whether by factions or extremists, to achieve reform, disarmament, justice and the rule of law," said Jean Arnault, the special U.N. representative for Afghanistan.
"We share their conviction. And we think they will succeed," he told reporters.
BURST INTO LIFE
The election bust into life on Wednesday, with Uzbek candidate Abdul Rashid Dostum clambering onto a bay stallion at a Kabul rally to display his martial qualities, and supporters of Karzai distributing baseball caps emblazoned with his image.
All this is very new to Afghanistan, which has been torn by conflict since the 1979 Soviet invasion and has not held any form of election since the late 1960s. It will be the first time ever that Afghans will directly elect their own leader.
At his meeting, Karzai urged Afghans to follow the example of their warrior ancestors and become heroes -- but of the ballot box, not the battlefield.
"You have shown yourselves to be heroes versus the Soviet Union and terrorists," he said. "Now show yourselves to be heroes of the vote."
Hundreds of Afghan troops and police -- and a crack American bodyguard detail -- slapped a tight security cordon around the national stadium where Karzai spoke.
The Taliban used the same stadium to publicly execute criminals during their five-year rule.
"This is exciting," said Obidullah Moheen, an English language teacher. "I never thought in my life I would get the chance to vote. I told my class to forget lessons and come to the rally."
Dostum, the powerful Uzbek leader from north Afghanistan, made a rare foray into Kabul as the campaign closed and lambasted Karzai.
"Afghanistan has received millions of dollars, but we do not have the reconstruction to show for it," the veteran of countless battles told a rapt crowd of about 2,000 supporters.
"I have fought for Afghanistan all my life. I am not like those who spent there time in Germany or Europe," he said, a reference to the years Karzai spent in exile.
Another major rival against Karzai is Tajik leader Yunus Qanuni, but he was making private appeals in closed-door meetings during the day and did not address any public rallies.
The poll is being claimed as a foreign policy success by President Bush, who helped oust the Taliban in late 2001 for refusing to hand over Osama bin Laden after his al Qaeda network attacked U.S. cities that September.
More than 10.5 million people have signed up to vote within Afghanistan from a population of about 28 million and an adult population of about 14 million, an extremely high figure in the impoverished and mountainous nation.
Almost 750,000 Afghan refugees in neighboring Pakistan have also registered. An estimated 400,000 to 600,000 are also eligible to vote in Iran as registered Afghan refugees.
BTT
By The Associated Press
Key dates in Afghanistan's move toward democracy:
_Oct. 7, 2001: U.S. and British forces begin airstrikes against Taliban regime for sheltering Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida terrorist network.
_Nov. 13, 2001: U.S.-backed Northern Alliance fighters enter Kabul, Afghan capital.
_Dec. 5, 2001: Conference of Afghan representatives in Germany creates framework for transitional government led by U.S.-approved candidate Hamid Karzai.
_Dec. 20, 2001: First international peacekeepers begin work in Kabul.
_Dec. 22, 2001: Interim government headed by Karzai sworn in.
_June 19, 2002: Grand council of Afghan leaders completes work on new government, affirming Karzai as country's interim president.
_Sept. 5, 2002: Gunman killed trying to assassinate Karzai.
_Nov. 3, 2003: Draft constitution presented after 11 months of work by 35-member commission, with local meetings for public input.
_Dec. 14, 2003: 502-member grand council convenes to debate constitutional draft.
_Jan. 4, 2004: Council adopts charter creating Islamic state under presidential system sought by Karzai, opening way for elections but also exposing enduring ethnic divisions.
_May 5, 2004: Three U.N. election workers shot dead in eastern Nuristan in attack claimed by Taliban rebels.
_June 25, 2004: Suspected Taliban kill up to 17 people in southern Uruzgan province because they registered to vote.
_Aug. 20, 2004: After nearly yearlong process during which 12 election workers slain, about 10.6 million Afghans are registered to vote.
_Sept. 7, 2004: Thirty days of campaigning starts for presidential election.
_Oct. 9, 2004: Presidential election.
Sounds like a democrat to me.
Thanks and nice job. Please ping me on anything "A-Stan" (As I'm told that is how the soldiers refer to that beautiful country).
History in the making ~ Bump!
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