Collapse of the Entire Front

Two months after the Afghan presidential election, the United Nations finally admitted that the voting was marred by massive fraud. What can we expect the winner to do?

The United States, said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, expects more than has thus far been done. Washington apparently wants to cling to Hamid Karzai as long as possible, even though he has accomplished nothing during the eight years the war in the Hindu Kush has been going on.

The United States is now risking a lot more than a military defeat in Afghanistan. Efforts to rebuild the nation’s civil and institutional infrastructures continue to fall far short of even America’s modest goals, as the New York Times learned from high-level veterans in both the government and the Pentagon. There has been no significant improvement in setting up workable governmental and legal systems, nor has law enforcement been able to eliminate the all-pervasive corruption within institutions.

Barack Obama’s promise to send hundreds of agricultural aides has no traction because they’ll never get outside Kabul and into the countryside where Shar’ia law, under the Taliban, has made a return. That’s another setback for Obama’s Afghanistan policy; he has thus far relied on making his troop surge more palatable by emphasizing simultaneous civilian reconstruction programs.