Progress In Afghanistan : Election A Positive Sign

Good work here by the Heritage Foundation, as usual -

Progress in Afghanistan

Last Thursday, war-torn Afghanistan held a presidential election. Its outcome will weigh heavily on America's efforts to defeat the Taliban terrorists. Although the results remain unknown, Heritage experts James Phillips and Lisa Curtis applauded the electoral process and respectable voter turnout as a significant "blow to the Taliban, since it demonstrates that Afghans support the democratic process and not the Taliban's version of harsh Islamist rule."

Despite this important show of democracy, however, Heritage Vice President Kim Holmes reminds the administration that success in Afghanistan will only result from strategic planning to build effective coalitions with Afghan leadership. The current challenge the administration faces is devising a way to "integrate successfully its nation-building efforts at the central government level with the much harder work of dealing with local factions and tribes susceptible to Taliban intimidation.”

Leading up to the elections, Taliban terrorists ran a fierce propaganda campaign, threatening to dismember and disfigure voters. And while 135 violent incidents claimed at least 26 lives and dampened turnout somewhat, "voter turnout appears to have been respectable."
Incumbent President Hamid Karzai is running neck-and-neck with challenger Abdullah Abdullah after early vote tallies. If neither garners 50 percent of the vote, the candidates will go before voters again in a runoff election. In addition to underscoring a desire to confront the fear-mongering and corruption of the Taliban, Heritage experts believe the closeness of this election could help "bolster Afghans' faith in the democratic process by demonstrating it was a genuinely competitive campaign."

No matter who wins, however, "the real test will be the extent to which Afghan leaders can effectively cooperate after the elections to build a more stable and prosperous Afghanistan," writes Heritage Middle East expert Jim Phillips in The Foundry.
America's efforts in the region will largely depend on cohesion among a legitimately elected Afghan leadership. "America will not be able to stabilize Afghanistan and ensure it does not again turn into a terrorist safe haven," Phillips and Curtis write in a separate analysis, "unless it has an Afghan government partner with credibility among the people."
» Heritage's Lindsey Shaw explains how beating the militants in Pakistan is key to winning in Afghanistan.

Last week's election was certainly "a step in the right direction." But as Heritage Vice President Kim Holmes explains, this step must be followed by "devising a workable strategy on Afghanistan and sticking to it…for as long as necessary and no matter the political fallout."