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Do Afghans Favour Obama over McCain? Muhammad Tahir
It appears that the majority of Afghans support the notion of placing more US troops in the country, regardless of who sends them, but what sets Obama above McCain, who has expressed a similar vision, is his criticism over the weak performance of the Afghan government and his desire to pursue militants in neighbouring Pakistan if required. Hasht-e-Sobh, an Afghan daily independent newspaper, argued on July 21 that, compared to McCain, Obama has presented himself as an ethical and reformist figure, who believes Afghanistan is America’s main front in the war against terror. McCain, it claimed, still regards Iraq as the priority. In addition to local press, prominent opponents of President Karzai, such as leaders of the Northern Alliance, seem more vocal in their interpretation of Obama’s remarks on the ability of the Central Administration to settle problems to their satisfaction. Speaking on July 17, Sayed Sancharaki, spokesperson for The United Islamic Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan, said “our leaders favour Obama, who states that the main fight against terrorism is in Afghanistan. He is right and we have long been concerned about the fact that Bush sees the Afghan people only through the eyes of Karzai and thinks that if he has Karzai he has all of Afghanistan. He is mistaken.” (Daily Payman-e-Milli, July 18). Has Karzai lost Obama’s support? Obama’s comment in a July 12 interview aired on CNN, in which he criticised the Karzai government of not having gotten out of the bunker, has been widely used by some local press to argue that Karzai does not have Obama’s support. This remarks, however, were interpreted by the spokesperson of the Afghan Foreign Ministry as part of Obama’s United States election campaign. Nevertheless, the comment’s timing was critical, as presidential elections are also underway in Afghanistan, where the legitimacy of President Karzai’s government is already in question. “It should be said that the Afghan government is in a critical situation,” wrote the Daily Afghanistan on July 22nd. “The government of President Karzai has been losing supporters daily. Earlier, Gulbaddin Hekmatyar’s Pashtun faction of the Hezb-e-Islami in the government dropped its support for Karzai, after the dismissal of Attorney-General Abdul Jabbar Sabet. Relations between the government and the opposition, consisting of Uzbeks and Tajiks, are already strained, and most recently ethnic Hazaras have expressed frustration over the frequent attacks by Pashtun nomads on their villages”. The effectiveness of Hamid Karzai as President of Afghanistan has been subject of discussion not only domestically but also in the international community. The recent comments by Obama, -regarded by the majority of Afghans as the obvious next US president-, is yet one more reason for the critics of Karzai to believe that finally he is losing a critical mass of supporters. Obama is not given a complete picture While the state media have not uttered a single word in defence of the state, private and independent media have raised questions concerning the depth and accuracy of briefings that Obama received during his meetings with Afghan officials. “Whenever a Western official visits Afghanistan, President Karzai displays figures about the progress made in Afghanistan, and tries to blame Pakistan for all internal problems,” wrote Hasht-e-Sobh on July 20. “But terrorism is not the only problem that the country is suffering from, so it was therefore important for Obama to meet with opposition leaders and civil representatives to get the complete picture of the situation in the country. Unfortunately this did not happen on this visit”. While discussion over Obama’s recent visit is expected to continue for some time, some local experts have raised doubts over his strategy for winning the war by sending more troops. “More troops would mean more potential targets and more American fatalities inflicted by Taliban ambushes, a tally currently standing around 550 deaths,” wrote IWPR on July 17th. Meanwhile, Haji Kashmir Khan, the top commander of fugitive rebel leader Hekmatyar’s party Hizb-e-Islami, has issued a warning to Obama that “the more troops he sends to Afghanistan, the more US fatalities he should expect.” (Afghan Islamic Press, July 20). So tackling this problem would depend, should he win the election, largely on his ability and judgement. Obama would need to be able to defeat insurgency, and, crucially, win the support not only of local people but also of Pakistanis, since it would otherwise be impossible to guard the entire 2,500 km Pakistan-Afghan border to prevent the infiltration of militants. Published on USAK-International Strategic Studies Organization-Ankara -Turkey
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Ankara (August 7, 2008)-It has been almost 15 days since the Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama paid his first trip to war-torn Afghanistan (19 and 20 July), but the implications of his trip continue to cause ripples, and his remarks on the country continue to appear in local headlines.