Photo courtesy: Carnegie Endowment
The clock is rapidly ticking down. In three days the Afghanistan presidential elections will commence. The Taliban have stepped up their antics in attempt to dissuade voters from visiting the polling sites. A few days ago, the capital city of Kabul was attacked by a vehicle suicide bomber. As a result of this heinous act, 7 innocent people died and 91 were wounded including women and children. According to the local newspaper here, the Taliban wanted to show no area would be immune from attack. They have also posted letters in the local mosques warning people not to show up at the polling sites. Today, they threatened to cut off the voting finger of people who still had the indelible ink stain. In previous elections, the people rejoiced and were proud of the purple ink stain. Now the insurgents want these same people to fear voting.
To round out their strategy, the Taliban are focusing their energy and attacks in the south, specifically the Kandahar area. If they can persuade the Pashtuns (largest ethnic group) not to vote, this will decrease the chances of incumbent President Hamid Karzai being reelected.
Photo courtesy: Carnegie Endowment
Kandahar also happens to be the birthplace of the Taliban. If the Taliban succeed, they hope the elections will be challenged because insufficient number of people casted their vote. But in my opinion, the Taliban may have overlooked a vital fact. There are several strong challengers for the presidency. Several analysts already predicted a run-off in October if the incumbent does not secure 50% of the vote even before the stepped up attacks and threats. So whether the Taliban is only crying wolf with their threats or whether this country will light up like the Fourth of July remains to be seen. The coalition forces in conjunction with the ANA, ANP and other agencies have devoted a vast amount of resources to protect the polling sites. Now it will be up to the will of the people.
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Camp puppies Liberty and Justice
When I returned from “ANA Land” today, the camp puppies were stretched out in the shade taking a nap. They seemed to recognize me and gave me this inquisitive look. I suppose they were debating whether a piece of Pupparoni would accidentally fall from my hand. The brown puppy has also been named Justice. So the two puppies have been named Liberty and Justice. I thought that was rather fitting and thanks to SPC Lowe’s mom for the suggestion.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Afghan elections, Afghan National Army, Afghan National Police, Afghanistan, ANA, ANP, Deployment, ETT, Hamid Karzai, Kandahar, Taliban, war
here’s hoping that all gos well, in the next few days. i would like to see a large turnout for the vote.just to show the Taliban that the people of Afghanistan are stronger than thy are.
The Thunder Run has linked to this post in the blog post From the Front: 08/18/2009 News and Personal dispatches from the front and the home front.