ashraf ghani

As a fitting supplement to my piece today, here’s Josh Foust’s bottom line:
If Hamid Karzai wins, it’s the failing status quo, and a powerful narrative that democracy doesn’t work. If Abdullah Abdullah somehow wins, then he’ll have to deal with the powerful entrenched interests in Kabul that even Karzai couldn’t meaningfully change—which would mean a [...]

With Thursday’s presidential election in Afghanistan proving difficult to forecast, some analysts in and outside the Obama administration are considering U.S. options if the next government is viewed as illegitimate.

Speaking of the Afghan election, Brian Katulis, a foreign policy analyst with the Center for American Progress, is in Kabul to observe the vote, and Politico prints this report from him:
At a small gathering in a private home last night, I met journalists and aid workers who have years of experience in the country and [...]

The Obama administration is pretty much resigned to Afghan President Hamid Karzai winning reelection next month. The administration considers Karzai to be corrupt and incompetent. And yet no real viable alternative candidate has emerged. Pledged not to interference in the election, there’s not much that the Obama team can do but sigh and mend fences [...]

Here’s a rigorously reported piece on the history of the relationship between the United States and Afghan President Hamid Karzai — as you’ll see from the piece, we only have a U.S.-Afghan relationship as a derivative effect — from Rajiv Chandrasekaran. It suggests this must be a perplexing time for Karzai: he spent the last [...]

Erin Simpson makes the good point that Hamid Karzai is being underestimated. This seems difficult to argue with. If the Bush administration had an Afghanistan policy that was reduced to supporting Karzai, the Obama administration is treating him like the guest at 3 a.m. who wants one more round of Guitar Hero.