Run Off or Run Out ?

Political Debacle in Afghanistan

Largely in the expected lines, Dr Abdullah Abdullah the opponent to the incumbent president Hamid Karzai has 'opted out' of the second run-off to the elections. It seems nothing but the pressure mounted by US tactics might have twined the ropes in favor of Hamid Karzai. Based on this outcome, one can draw many conclusions. From the beginning, there were desperate attempts by Karzai to retain his power and the Western Powers wanted to dictate the terms of his second tenure. He must have been reluctant to give a blanket cheque of promises to USA and allied powers. Thus Karzai had to face a few second tire of leaders of his own feather, one being Dr. Abdullah. Yet the bargaining of the allies continued behind the scenes. And Karzai created all that was necessary to sabotage the election process. But it tunrned out to be a mockery of the global human rights interventions as violence and booth capturing took the center stage. UN Agencies half heartedly pitched in, to play the spoil spot to Karzai's ambitions of making an easy ride through vote rigging in the first phase of elections. This could be attributed to the temporary discord between Karzai and the US power centers. But this time, winds are turning in Karzai's favor as back stage forces are wielding in to persuade the opponent to run out of the foray. In the flip side of this whole episode, it is a moral blow to the American model of incubating the portals of freedom world wide. But as one can expect, US diplomats are verbose yet again interpreting this is as a usual democratic phenomenon ! Vociferous and entrenched in cacophony about the human rights violations in Iran, Western Powers like USA, France, Britain were opposing the poll verdicts by all might. But none seems to be considered about this ill fated turn of events which show their fear of the possible fractured verdict in an ethnic divided nation. So we can expect the Afghanistan riding on the same tougher climate in the coming days as a banana republic, continuing the legacy of Iraq which still fumes in the fury of ethnic crisis and deep rooted angst against American invasion. And the geo-political think tanks are seemingly unnerved by the ethnic wounds created in the almost-decade long conflicts and cure!