Posted on 11/01/2009 6:08:50 AM PST by mylife
Abdullah's announcement came after the failure of last-minute attempts to head off another crisis in the presidential election saga. Kai Eide, the senior United Nations official in Afghanistan, led a series of talks with Karzai to lay the ground for a power-sharing deal in which Abdullah would concede defeat, making a second round unnecessary.
In return, the former foreign minister had asked for a number of changes to the Afghan election body, including the sacking of its lead commissioner. But almost all of Abdullah's demands were rejected, leaving him no choice but to drop out, his supporters say.
"He knows that there is no point in taking part in an election where the odds are illegally stacked against him," said one senior member of Abdullah's camp last night.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
The Uzbek general Rashid Dostum has been heavily backing Karzai.
Who are the other Afghan Warlords? My memory has grown short and reports from this region are sparse
I don’t know anything about him except that he just got a laudatory article with a noble looking pose in the photo from the Guardian.
That probably means he is quite anti-American and that Obama favored his election.
Afghan Warlords
The New Khans
The King of Afghanistan was crowned in 1933 and lasted 40 years. Despite decades of intermittent attempts to modernize it, the national government remained weak and backward. Early parliaments had to be strung with barbed wire to keep the delegates from knifing tribal enemies across the aisle. During this time, the University of Kabul spawned two schools of political activism. Communists plotted to free the peasantry and women from the oppression of Khan and Mullah, and the Islamists schemed to make Afghanistan a society of godly virtue. When the King visited Italy in 1973, his prime minister, Daud Khan, told him not to come back. Daud established the Republic of Afghanistan, which fell to a military coup by communist officers in 1978. The Islamists took to the hills in revolt, and decades of civil war began.
Established institutions were damaged by civil war. Power drifted into the hands of the leaders of war bands, called warlords. Without the traditional checks which had mitigated the authority of the Khans, warlords routinely abused their power. War bands were guilty of torture, rape, murder, and theft. Warlords built reputations for Islamic piety, patriotism, generosity, courage in combat, and fearsome acts of cruelty with theatrical flair. They overstated the size of their war bands, lied about their feats, and slandered their enemies without shame. But they provided a defense for people of their ethnicity or tribe and had genuine support from segments of the public.
As civil war ends, warlords and their men need to be disarmed and integrated back into peacetime life. Westerners, especially idealistic non-governmental organizations (NGOs), place great importance on justice. But in civil war all sides commit atrocities, so the losers see prosecution as hypocrisy. Experienced guerilla fighters protected by a sympathetic public may choose flight over arrest. Jesse and Frank James avoided capture for 17 years after the end of our civil war. At present, Taliban leaders roam their home province. A war crimes court in Kabul could flood the hills with bandits.
The Soviets tried to force communism on Afghanistan and failed. Pakistan pushed a backward theocracy which was just as distasteful to most Afghans. Force-fed democracy may go down easier, but hold your breath. Afghanistan is a shaky feudal system again, which is familiar and acceptable to Afghans. The warlords are the new aristocracy. When we hold provincial elections and ask the warlords to step aside for the winners at the ballot box, we might be in for an unpleasant surprise.
The Scozzafava of Afghanistan.
I know he is western educated and was part of Ahmed Masoods inner circle.
Afghanistan is a collection of thiefdoms. I cannot recall who all the players are anymore
Many are calling for a looser federation under Karzai. If it gets any looser there will be no federation. I am doubtful that there is any centralized federation now.
Obama is pushing Abdullah and the UN is trying to bury Abdullah, and we have NATO running the war.
This is a total cluster chuck
LoL. Actually Abdullah may be more acceptable than Scozzafava
I am sad Abdullah pulled out because the Karzai government is steeped in corruption and the drug trafficking trade and it was hoped that Abdullah might end that or at least rein it in to a more manageable level (like the corruption in our own country). I am also concerned that Clinton’s public outrage of Pakistan’s government which also may be corrupt as well that the effect may be to chill relations between our two countries even if what Clinton said was true; a public statement only embarrasses Pakistan so such a statement should have remained private. Chilly relations with Pakistan would be unfortunate if it happened. But then I have absolutely no confidence in the Obummer administration’s foreign policy and those like Clinton who are turning our best allies in the war on terror into enemies.
The region has never know stability. They reject the notion centralized government.
In light of that Karzai has done a remarkable job of herding cats.
I suspect that Abdullah is taking a bow out while making a backroom deal with Karzai
I am torn on the matter. I have always empathized with Ahmad Masood and the Northern Alliance, but no region may hold power over the other warlords.
Afghanistan is like the Hatfields and McCoys
Afghan Leader courts the Warlord vote http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/08/world/asia/08warlords.html
Just found this on another thread. It is from an article by a progressive blogger.
“Though I do agree with Frank Rich when looking at the runoff in Afghanistan. If Abdullah does indeed bow out, which we’ll know very soon, it will be portend potentially disastrous developments for us all.”
This is exactly what I predicted in my earlier post. I love it when you can tell who the bad guys are just by looking at how a newspaper with known progressive leanings (the Guardian) photographs someone. The noble pose in the Guardian was a sure tipoff that this guy was the darling of the left.
Not to worry. Dear Leader will study the issue.
Now that Afghanistan has been destabilized by Abdullah and his Democrat handlers Obama has an excuse to not comply with his generals’ requests.
If Obama does pull out all the troops from Afghanistan and any we may have in Pakistan, look for the Taliban and Al Qaeda to get complete control of these two countries and make them havens for all manner of terrorists. The indigenous populations of these two countries will be massacred and slaughtered like what happened agyer we left Southeast Asia back in 1953. Millions will die even more horrible deaths than those that starve to death or die from unchecked disease in Africa, also very much in danger of many countries in that continent being taken over by terrorists.
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