Obama's Lack of Afghanistan Interest

The President Pays Little Attention to the Afghanistan Election

Oct 20, 2009

Afghanistan's presidential election will influence President Obama's decision on sending troops to the region. Why hasn't the president given the election more attention?

A great deal of importance is being place on the Afghanistan presidential election. At this point the incumbent Hamid Karzai has agreed to a runoff according to a foxnews.com story, Afghan Election Commission Orders Nov. 7 Presidential Runoff.

More Time Needed

It was previously though that Karzai had the election well in hand, but the discovery of “thousands of fraudulent ballots” which were subsequently thrown out has dropped his vote total to less than 50 percent the foxnews.com article reports. This percentage is the minimum amount of votes a candidate needs to avoid a runoff according to Afghani law.

The leadership of Afghanistan has great importance to President Obama. The president is mulling a decision on troop deployment based on recommendations from Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the area’s leading commander. Further analysis of the general’s report can be found in the article, Obama’s Afghanistan Decision. by Curt Guillory

The election is important to America’s interests because in order for U.S. troops to be successful, the Afghanistan president must be credible. White House Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel echoes these sentiments as he was quoted on the CBS television program Face the Nation as reported by voanews.com saying, “Washington must have a credible partner in Kabul.”

The American representative for current president Kazai’s announcement that he will not oppose a runoff was Sen. John Kerry. The senator is not a member of President Obama’s cabinet; he has no official white house affiliation; nor is he tied to any foreign policy position in any official capacity.

Senator Kerry is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But it is not the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who will be making the strategic decisions in Afghanistan.

This begs the question why was Sen. Kerry present for this election changing announcement? The president could have sent any number of people who have a direct interest in the situation, or at least represent the whit house. White House Chief Of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, or even Afghanistan Czar Richard Holbrooke would have been better suited to represent the administration by virtue of their positions. Indeed the White House did not sanction or arrange for Kerry's trip according to White House press secretary Robert Gibbs as reported by thehill,com

Buying Time

The runoff does afford the president more time to make his impending decision on whether or not to send additional troops to Afghanistan. Indeed Senator Kerry made the point according to voanews.com by saying, “I don't see how President Obama can make a decision about the committing of our additional forces or even the further fulfillment of our mission that is here today without an adequate government in place or knowledge about what that government is going to be.”

The time frame for completion of the runoff election is estimated to take as long as next spring. According to a cnn.com report, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, Said Jawad said, “If the election were not held by early November, winter weather would make voting impossible in some areas and force a delay until spring of 2010.”

It is interesting, however, that the president did make time recently to travel to Copenhagen trying to win Chicago the 2016 Olympic games, Obama’s Olympic Trip. by Curt Guillory

The copyright of the article Obama's Lack of Afghanistan Interest in US Foreign Affairs is owned by Curt Guillory. Permission to republish Obama's Lack of Afghanistan Interest in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.