Word: sherzai
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...administration is notoriously corrupt, dependent on the support of unsavory warlords - some of whom are no more inclined to allow girls to go to school than is the Taliban - and may possibly even be in league with drug traffickers. And yet, this week's news that Gul Agha Sherzai, seen by many Western diplomats as a favored challenger to Karzai, had chosen not to stand in the August election seems to confirm that Washington has little alternative but to live with Karzai. (See a multimedia view of U.S. operations in Afghanistan...
...However many eyebrows and hackles a Sherzai campaign for the Aug. 20 polls would have raised, his abrupt withdrawal invokes the specter of a lackluster election season destined to demoralize Afghans already wary of the unfulfilled promises of democracy. Sherzai was widely considered the only candidate who could mount a robust challenge against Karzai - whose popularity has plummeted after seven years of ineffective rule and allegations of corruption and nepotism. On May 2, however, Sherzai met privately with the President for four hours. After he emerged Sherzai announced that he had changed his mind and would no longer...
...Sherzai had continued with his campaign he would have had to step down from his presidential-appointed post as governor - a prestigious and influential position he would be unlikely to regain if he lost to Karzai. A spokesman for Sherzai said his boss "decided Karzai would be a better leader for Afghanistan." Sherzai's campaign manager was stunned. "This is an absolute betrayal of everything we worked on," spluttered Khalid Pashtoon...
...Competiton or no, Karzai would probably win the election anyway. He has the benefit of incumbency in a country accustomed to a monarchy, and the opposition parties are fractured. But while Sherzai is no white knight, his candidacy would have lent the election greater legitimacy. It would have given Afghans a chance to get fully involved in the election process, to discuss policies and platforms. Now Afghans are deprived of at least the perception of choice, and of having a say in their future...
...last time I saw Sherzai, who is an accomplished lyricist, he was belting out a newly written ode in Pashto to the Taliban in the domed atrium of his Baroque governor's palace. A turbaned Pavarotti with a deep voice burnished by years of cigarettes, he put one hand on his heart and, with the other raised in a beseeching manner, chastised his enemies. "Once, we stood side by side fighting for our country/ Leave me some pride in those memories/ Your worth is more than in killing yourself/ You slaughter your brother while calling out God's name/ Come...