Word: karzai
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...acceptance by the U.S. and NATO of a second term of office for Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai has raised concerns among many Afghans skeptical of the legitimacy of his re-election. That acceptance was announced in Washington and Brussels on Sept. 29, at least a week before Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission releases its final verdict on a recount of thousands of potentially fraudulent votes that could either confirm Karzai's initial first-round victory or - if his tally falls below 50% - order a runoff vote against his closest challenger, Abdullah Abdullah. But while the Western powers may have...
...allegations of vote-rigging and electoral fraud following last month's Afghan elections haven't helped. President Hamid Karzai was once the West's great hope for Afghanistan - stylish and urbane, deeply versed in Afghan politics but not completely part of it, he seemed the perfect man to lead his country out of its darkest days. But Western capitals have found him an unreliable and often frustrating partner. The election has "raised a question in people's minds," says Colonel Christopher Langton, senior fellow for Conflict and Defence Diplomacy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. "Why should...
...Karzai sought to ensure his re-election by making pacts with warlords whose human-rights records would have them behind bars in most countries. Still, having been installed in power by the U.S. invasion, Karzai has proven adept at persuading the country's umpteen warlords and trigger-happy commanders to usually - although not always - settle their grudges politically rather than with arms. Afghanistan may be a mess by the measure of politics and security, but its jails are no longer filled with thousands of political prisoners; in cities and towns, girls go to schools and universities; a feisty free press...
...Obviously, none of this progress has been enough to stabilize the country. Otherwise, the Taliban wouldn't effectively control 60% of it, as some security analysts now claim. Every day, Karzai and his Western backers are losing ground to the Taliban, as insurgents fill the void created by the failure to bring progress to the rural areas. And as bad as Karzai's government of patronage may be, part of the blame for the lack of progress must also go to the international donors who concentrated on mega projects carried out by foreign corporations and their armies of gun-toting...
...More than additional U.S. troops, Afghanistan needs a leader who can deliver - and do it fast. Is Karzai able to be that leader? "Despite all the deal-making he's done to get elected, is it in his character to turn around and look at things in a gimlet-eyed [pragmatic] way?" asks one Western diplomat. Karzai's past record would say no. But lately, as he paces through his palace garden, with his bodyguards always in his shadow, he must have realized the extent to which the diplomatic community and his own people have forsaken him over the election...