It doesn’t matter who wins the Afghan elections
Published: 31 October, 2009, 15:40
Edited: 01 November, 2009, 20:17
Regardless of who wins the elections in Afghanistan, the overall picture will not change. The United States simply cannot let the events unfold as they do, because that would make their war effort lose diplomatic legitimacy. After all, one of the main points for the invasion of Afghanistan in the first place was not only going after terrorists, but also “spreading democracy”. Thus, it is important to hold a show of fair political representation in Afghanistan so that, years down the road, it can be claimed that there was effort made in installing a legitimate and democratically elected government.
Hamid Karzai has been in power for almost the entirety of America’s official involvement in Afghanistan. His rule is viewed as illegitimate by many of the Afghans. In addition, representation in Afghan cultures is different from the Western idea of a representative voting system. The Afghans entrust their elders to cast the village’s votes. The EU and US officials tend to view this as infringement upon the newly created and enforced electoral system in Afghanistan - thus the claims of overwhelming fraud and other such violations.
The current election process was bound not to go the way that it was supposed to. The Taliban are not going to sit on their butts and see their former area of rule desecrated by the villainous Westerners. It was to be expected that they were going to step up their operations in Afghanistan. There was most likely a sense of false safety inside Kabul. Also, taking into account Pakistan’s efforts in South Waziristan, some top officials may have thought that the main efforts of the Taliban would be concentrated on repelling the Pakistani Army. And yet, the Taliban have managed to deal heavy blows to the NATO presence and UN operations in Afghanistan.
Regardless of the candidate that wins the next election in Afghanistan, what will happen is that they will be the façade of US power in Afghanistan. As most Afghans do not view the current leadership as a central theme to be rallied around, the purpose of the governing body is lost. If the people do not have faith in the government, the government is only legitimate on paper. Well, it is radical to say that all Afghans oppose the leadership. On the contrary, the Afghans mainly oppose the fact that the leadership is led and manipulated by external governments.
Reading the recent news about the elections and the bombing in Afghanistan, it becomes ever more clear that the current US strategy of “democratizing” the Afghans is failing. It is not to say that that endeavor was destined for failure from the beginning. The strategy needs to implement the local governing traditions and customs. It is impossible to change a culture in a short amount of time. It is a lot easier to work with the flow than trying to redirect it in a completely different direction.
