Afghan election front-runners trade fraud allegations: One corrupt Government is as good as the next

                                  

 Afghan election front-runners trade fraud allegations: Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-World Bank economist  will compete in a head-to-head vote after results from the April 5 election showed neither gained the 50 percent needed for first-round victory. The eventual winner will lead Afghanistan into a new era as US-led NATO combat troops end their 13-year war against the Islamist insurgency that erupted after President Hamid Karzai took power in 2001.

"We said from the beginning that fraud is our only rival, and we still hope that the complaints we have delivered will be addressed in a transparent way. "There were fraud violations -- organised, systematic fraud." Abdullah also accused the government of "meddling" in the vote.  The 2009 election, when Karzai retained power after defeating Abdullah, was marred by massive fraud in a chaotic process that shook the multinational effort to develop the country after the ousting of the austere Taliban regime. Preliminary results released on Saturday showed Abdullah secured 44.9 percent of the first-round vote, with Ghani on 31.5 percent.

 Of course there is fraud, one 14 year old said he just voted and in some areas there were more votes than people. Ashraf Ghani is Karzai's man, he will win so Karzai can keep running his drug business. I firmly believe Abdullah won the first election too. It does not matter, the Taliban will waste no time in taking over.

Afghanistan Chaos Seen After US Troop Withdrawal: Duh

  Afghanistan Chaos Seen After US Troop Withdrawal, Post Says: The National Intelligence Estimate, comprising information gathered by the nation’s 16 intelligence agencies, predicts a resurgence of influence by the Taliban as the U.S. withdraws,the Post said, citing unnamed officials who have read or been briefed on the report. 

 

The Pentagon has pressed Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign the agreement that would let U.S. forces train and assist Afghanistan’s army after 2014, when most U.S. troops will come home from a war now in its 13th year. Karzai so far has refused to sign.
 Why do we want to be in the middle of the ensuing mess? Intel says gains made in Afghanistan will be gone by 20217 but they will be gone almost instantly and many will die needlessly. Afghanistan belongs to the Taliban not Democracy. Like it or not we have created another Vietnam which belonged to the North Vietnamese!

At this point it is obvious to me that the general population wants the freedom to do what they want in life. Their army has proven that they have the will and wherewith all to fight for their country. I do believe that the vast majority do not want to live with the threat of having their limbs and heads hacked off at the whim of the Taliban.

It is time to treat the Taliban as what they are "enemies of the State" and everyone should take it as their duty to out them so the military can take care of them. Get rid of them, put them in their place while you can, relegate them to an active part of the Government or as a subservient entity.

I personally believe if all Afghan's that want something to say about their own life come out of the closet and start standing up against the Taliban that they can keep the Taliban at bay. Let them have their beliefs but keep them to those that want to follow them.

Mullah Omar was invited to join the upcoming election in 2014 and he did not respond. He did not have to he knows when we are gone so is corrupt Karzai.

I  remember during the election with Abdullah and Karzai's victory was found to be grossly corrupt the people just shrugged and said one corrupt Government is the same as the next.

That said, the people would be wise to remember the cutting off of heads and hands that is routine for the Taliban and how stifling it is under their rule. As a whole they should remember the thousands of them the Taliban have purposely killed. They should form Lashkar's (civilian defense against the Taliban) and eliminate the Taliban or life as they want it is over.

Afghans fear what will happen when troops leave: Among Afghans around the country interviewed by The Associated Press, the worry is pervasive. Many are deeply skeptical that Afghan police and security forces, which the U.S.-led coalition has spent years trying to build, will be able to fight insurgents and militants without American and NATO fighting alongside. Worse-case scenarios that some fear:

The Afghan forces could splinter along ethnic line and prompt civil war, the nation could plunge into a deep recession, or the Kabul government — plagued with corruption and still fragile despite efforts to establish its authority — would remain too weak to hold off a Taliban takeover.

 Just a 45-minute drive south of Kabul, residents of Wardak province directly feel the tenuousness. The province is a battleground for Afghan and coalition forces trying to squash hotbeds of the Taliban. Residents quickly warn visitors that it’s dangerous just to go past a checkpoint less a kilometer (half-mile) outside the provincial capital, Maidan Shahr.

In Afghanistan, Businesses Plan Their Own Exits: America may be struggling to come up with a viable exit plan for Afghanistan, but Abdul Wasay Manani is sure of his. This month, Mr. Manani, 38, flew to India for 14 days to scout out a new business, and a new home, ready to leave Afghanistan and everything he worked to build here, just in case things fall apart when most Americans and other foreign troops leave in 2014. “If the Taliban come like last time, ordering people around with whips, I can’t stay here,” he said. “I have to leave this country to keep my family safe.”

Many Afghans share his concern. In this environment, troubling indicators are not hard to find. More than 30,400 Afghans applied for asylum in industrialized nations in 2011, the highest level in 10 years and four times the number seeking asylum in 2005. The only Western bank operating here said on Wednesday that it would be leaving. Piles of cash equaling about a quarter of Afghanistan’s annual economic output were physically carried out of Afghanistan last year.

I just do not get it. If those people know how bad their life is going to be under the Taliban then why do they not fight to defeat them? *Vietnam all over again regardless of what they say. They are now offering the Taliban to join in the Government.

I really do not care what they do. Our soldiers did their job. We should get them out now with heads held high for a job well done. They have performed magnificently.The Taliban are going to take over again regardless and the people know it that is why everyone who can is making preparations to get out now. Afghans. all of them, better stand up and now if they want to get out from underneath the Taliban gang of miscreant Muslim's.

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com