Voting Begins in Afghanistan
Afghanistan's first election ever is underway. It represents a huge victory for the United States, and and implicit support for President Bush's often-expressed faith that people everywhere are capable of self-government. It's revealing, I think, that while all mainstream Democrats now claim to support our effort in Afghanistan (although many didn't before the war was won), it is rare if not unheard of for a Democrat to express any satisfaction over our success there or over the elections now in progress.
The Washington Times reports on the voting now taking place:
There were no major attacks, but security forces thwarted a planned massive truck bombing in the southern city of Kandahar. A top Afghan official said the bomb could have killed hundreds of people and disrupted the electoral process in the southern region.BIG TRUNK adds: Reader Dave Casper writes:Until now, Taliban fighters have failed to undertake the feared high-impact operation that could put the election process in jeopardy. They could revise tactics and may try to take high-value foreign hostages. The U.S. Embassy said yesterday it had received "a credible threat" against American journalists.
"They plan to kidnap U.S. journalists by luring them to meet with kidnapping operatives under the guise of providing videotapes on the activities of anti-government forces," said Mohammed Yusuf Pashtun, governor of the southern Kandahar province. "They are convinced this is their last chance. ... If the nation unites over the elections, then it is the end of the Taliban."
Ordinary Afghans place great hopes on the elections, which they see as a turning point that would result in the disarming of warlords and an increase in international support for economic reconstruction.
"God willing, after tomorrow things will improve," said Abdul Wahid, a young grocery store owner who said he would vote for Mr. Karzai. "People know the difference now between constantly fighting and leading a normal life."
"We don't want any more destruction, we want development," said truck driver Mohammed Serajuddin. "So we'll vote, we are not afraid."
Maybe you've missed the news, but the UN has somehow managed to screw up the election by using water-soluble ink to mark voters' fingers. All the candidates except Karzai have announced they are boycotting and won't accept the results, due to allegations of fraud.It's true the Afghans' willingness to vote is inspiring, but it appears the thing has turned into another UN train-wreck. The options now appear to be: stand behind a confidence building election which all but one candidate denounce as a fraud, or somehow arrange for a "do-over". Either way, it's a huge setback.
HINDROCKET responds: The ink mix-up is unfortunate, obviously, but let's not panic. The U.N. claims that the mix-up affected only a small number of polling stations, and at this point we have no reason to assume that's untrue. Moreover, there are 23,000 polling places, and a maximum of 10,000,000 voters, which means the average polling place would see no more than 435 people. One would think that if someone tried to vote repeatedly, it would be observed. And I've seen no report claiming that multiple voting was actually taking place.
What is most disappointing is the opposition candidates promptly denouncing the election as fraudulent. But, hey, where do you suppose they got that idea? Also, let's not forget that many Americans vote twice in our elections, too. Here in Minnesota, we have same-day registration, as do many other states. In any state with same-day registration, it is impossible to tell whether a voter has already voted in another jurisdiction. For that matter, it is impossible to tell whether the voter is even a citizen. No one has any idea how many Americans vote more than once, or how many of our elections turn on voter fraud. At least in Afghanistan, any fraud that occurred was inadvertent (on the part of the authorities), whereas in many American states, the laws are designed to deliberately encourage fraud.
So the Afghan election was imperfect. Welcome to the world of democracy. Let's not allow the Left to spin imperfection into defeat, as they so often try to do. The story of the Afghan election is not a mistake with indelible ink. It is the fact that millions of Afghans turned out for the first time to select leaders with ballots rather than Kalashnikovs. And that is a very important story indeed.
