When the Fears Come True

I look back on this to-be-sure paragraph from my pre-Afghanistan-elections piece about illegitimacy and wonder.

While the U.S. official cautioned that a legitimacy crisis following the election would “forestall progress on all other areas,” some saw such a crisis as an unlikely scenario. “Karzai would be a fool to do something seen as anti-democratic,” a former intelligence officer with experience in Afghanistan who requested anonymity said. [South Asia scholar Shuja] Nawaz pegged the odds for the election resulting in a government seen as illegitimate at 30 percent.

It turns out a lot of people underestimated Karzai.