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.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not