Polls Won’t Profit Afghans or Americans

Washington can celebrate what it calls democratic achievements in Afghanistan and Iraq. However, it should not forget that the price has been exorbitant, not only in terms of American blood and treasure, which have been flowing unchecked in both wars, but also in terms of the citizens’ blood and suffering in both countries. Millions have been killed, wounded or displaced, besides the lack of improvement in basic services for the survivors.

The truth is that the Afghan citizens do not primarily suffer from the lack of democracy as they do from anemia and lack of basic services that befit human life. The ballot boxes did not and will not address these ills, much less when they were tampered with in the absence of monitoring or control.

Seven years ago, the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, bringing a host of glittering promises, but nothing has changed on the ground. On the contrary, the situation has indeed grown worse: drugs have flourished, while the influence of drug dealers has strengthened, as well as that of warlords with Afghan blood on their hands. As for the women – whom the U.S. came to free from the veil – they are still wearing it, save for a select few in Kabul. Schools did not thrive, nor did hospitals. Most importantly, the security the people enjoyed under the Taliban’s rule no longer prevails under the Northern Alliance’s warlords government.

In the Afghan democratic celebration integrity was at its highest! People were in possession of multiple voter registration cards, and the number of voters in some provinces doubled. The most important fact that “terror-fighting” Washington disregarded is that Karzai sought out the warlords’ help in order to defeat his Tajik rival Abdullah Abdullah, and the Afghans saw the triumphant return of Abdul Rashid Dostum, considered to be one of the worst criminals in Afghan history.

All this did not arouse any objection on the part of the guards of the temple of freedom and democracy. What is important is that their smart, pampered boy wins. Naturally, since the Pashtuns – the ethnic group from which Karzai comes, and who constitute around half the Afghan population – do not care about the vote and are more likely to swear allegiance to the Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Umar, he could not allow the other to win, because of the impact this will have on the rise of the Afghan insurgency.

It is no doubt a comedy: Washington sells democracy where it is hardly in demand, whereas it denies it to those who need it by supporting known dictatorships. Look how Obama the Democrat gives up the democratization and reform slogans when in the Arab world and joins the ranks of the rulers, for no reason other than that they pay for his country’s interests from their peoples’ pockets.

In these conditions, the attitude of Muslim nations towards Obama’s America will not change. Not in Afghanistan, not in Pakistan, and not even in Iraq – which is living bloody times due to the conflicts created by the occupation – to say nothing of Palestine and the two-state solution, which is a prerequisite to settling the issue.

It remains to be said that Karzai’s victory will not solve the problem. America will be defeated in Afghanistan, just like Britain and, later, the Soviet Union. Then it will indeed be Obama’s Vietnam, and, in fact, America’s Vietnam as well.