October 7th, 2009 by Jason

Congressional leaders from both parties met with President Obama yesterday to discuss the war in Afghanistan. While details are still trickling in, the President ruled out substantial troop reductions. While the troop level debate still dominates the discussion, several commentators have added unique perspectives recently.

Andy McCarthy elucidates on a “central flaw in the McChrystal strategy” that mistakenly sees an opportunity to widen the schism between takfiri Islamic radicals and moderate Muslims in Afghanistan. Kelley Vlahos speculates why Secretary Clinton and Ambassador Holbrooke have not defended Peter Galbraith (see our previous post) after he was fired by the U.N. for seeking to investigate Afghan election fraud. Dan Reiter argues the previous U.S. model of invasion, total victory, and democracy installation is now defunct given our experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq. Finally, Jeffrey Simpson, citing new data that place Afghanistan as the second-worst country for human development and fifth most corrupt, argues NATO has been ineffective in stemming violence and corruption, “perhaps because Afghanistan was violent and corrupt for a long, long time before we arrived.”

In Afghanistan, Farida Tarana, a former contestant on the Afghan version of American Idol, has been elected to the 29-seat Kabul Provincial Council. Tarana, who faced criticism for breaking gender roles by competing on the show, now hopes to show “a lady who can sing can be in politics as well.” Meanwhile, Nasrine Gross describes on Informed Comment the experience of working for Abdullah Abdullah’s campaign and provides both anecdotal and statistical evidence of massive fraud by Hamid Karzai’s supporters. Gross hopes to “shed better light not only on the extent of fraud and the premeditated and planned nature of it but also on the desire of Afghan people to see their vioce recognized, and to help the international community make the right choice.” The Daily Star also reports some Afghan leaders are pushing for reconciliation with moderate Taliban.

Posted in Afghanistan, Elections, Freedom, Iraq, Military, Political Parties, Taliban, US foreign policy, US politics, Women, al-Qaeda |