US President Barack Obama congratulated the Afghan people on Friday for holding a presidential election amid violent intimidation by Taliban militants, but cautioned that more difficult days lie ahead for the war-weary nation.
“This is an important step forward in the Afghan people’s efforts to take control of their future even as violent extremists are trying to stand in their way,” Obama said at the White House before boarding Marine One for a flight to the presidential mountaintop retreat at Camp David, Maryland.
In Kabul, government chief electoral officer Daoud Ali Najafi said results from Thursday’s balloting would not be made public until Tuesday.
Obama said it was the first democratic election run by Afghans in more than three decades. The 2004 election that put President Hamid Karzai in power was run by the UN. Karzai and top challenger Abdullah Abdullah each described himself on Friday as the likely winner of Thursday’s voting, although many believed they would be forced to compete in a runoff election in October.
The US has been steadily increasing its military efforts in Afghanistan since Obama took office, arguing that that is a far more effective use of American troops than the Bush administration’s emphasis on the war in Iraq. US and allied casualties also have mounted, particularly since 2007.
Obama said it was obvious in advance of the election that the Taliban, who control substantial portions of the country, particularly in the volatile south, would attempt to disrupt the voting.
“Over the last few days, in particular yesterday, we’ve seen acts of violence and intimidation by the Taliban, and there may be more in the days to come,” he said.
Regardless of the ultimate winner of the presidential election, the US will continue to work with Afghans to stabilize the country, Obama said.
“Our goal is clear: To disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-Qaeda and their extremist allies,” he said. “That goal will be achieved, and our troops will be able to come home as Afghans continue to strengthen their own capacity and take responsibility for their own future.”
With memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks dimming, Americans are growing weary of the conflict. New polling this week showed a majority — 51 percent — of those surveyed now believe the war is not worth the fight, an increase of 6 percentage points in a month.
Still, a White House strategy review is scheduled for the middle of next month and General Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, is expected to press for a further increase in forces for his counterinsurgency campaign.
Senator Bob Corker, a Republican who was in Afghanistan to observe Thursday’s elections, told CNN on Friday that more US troops probably would be needed, given the importance of security in moving Afghanistan toward political stability.
“The fact that security was more of a concern during this election than the 2004 election obviously says a lot about what’s occurred here over the last five years,” Corker said in an interview from Pakistan. He was referring to the deterioration of security as the Taliban has gained strength in some areas.
Just three years ago the US had about 20,000 forces in the country. Today, it has triple that, on the way to 68,000 by the end of this year, when all of the extra 17,000 troops that Obama announced in March are to be in place. An additional 4,000 troops are arriving to help train Afghan forces.
Obama has not wavered from his campaign pledge to take the fight to the Taliban and their al-Qaeda allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He argues that the true danger to Americans lies in the towering peaks and vast deserts of those countries, not in Iraq. The Bush administration, he asserts, wasted precious time, treasure and blood in toppling former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and getting caught up in an insurgency.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
RSS