Afghan Presidential Elections – U.S. Villain of the Piece

By: Kayhan Int’l 

Political instability is one of the core problems of Afghanistan, mainly because of unabated American meddling that did not start in September 2001 with George Bush’s attack and occupation of this Muslim land which is an extension of West Asia or the Middle East, but over two decades earlier when Washington backed the extremist elements of the mujahideen against the Soviet invasion by pouring in CIA protégés like the Saudi founder of al-Qa’eda that was later branded as a terrorist outfit.

Irrespective of the arguments about the main causes of continued political conflicts in Afghanistan, what has not been properly explained in the many analyses is the fact that in most cases, it is evident that the major problem is leadership – again due to American meddling that prevents a strong and dedicated nationalist leader emerging on the scene to defend the country’s independence.

As could be gleaned from the reports of the recent polls, both the frontrunners for Afghanistan’s presidency, that is, the incumbent Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, have declared themselves winners, without waiting for the official declaration by the Election Commission in late October, thereby echoing the election crisis of five years ago when competing claims by these two men led to months of turmoil.

The contradictory claims by the camps of Ghani and his opponent, Abdullah, came two days after the voting was held despite hundreds of attacks by Taliban, who had questioned the legitimacy of the elections and warned Afghans not to participate.

This is all the result of American mischief that over the years has plunged the country into chaos, instability and proliferation of opium cultivation. Recently, the U.S. after much publicized talks with the Taliban in Doha (capital of the Persian Gulf state of Qatar), failed to honour its commitments and unilaterally broke the negotiations by blaming the militia, with which it has paradoxical relations.

If left to themselves, the Afghan Muslim people, despite their political, religious, and ethnic differences, are capable of solving their problems, but the U.S. occupation, as part of a wider nefarious plan for all of West Asia (Middle East as the West erroneously calls it), has prevented such a possibility.

Following the decisive defeat of the Daesh terrorists in Syria and Iraq, the U.S. has transferred to Afghanistan these macabrely murderous takfiris in order to target the Shi’a and Sufi Muslims, so as to keep the nations in perpetual turmoil and bloodshed.

Even if one says that political instability in Afghanistan owes much of its cause to internal factors, the fact cannot be denied that external factors, especially geo-political and economic interests of the Americans and the British meddlers, play a determining role in undermining the processes of social development in Afghanistan.

Irrespective of such factors as poverty, violence, diseases, official corruption, sectarian bigotry, acts of terrorism, and the manipulative tendencies of the local elite, the reality is that political and economic instability in Afghanistan is due to the unwanted presence of the American occupation troops.

In such an atmosphere, turnout for the presidential polls was naturally low, thereby putting a question mark on its legitimacy, and the quarrel among the candidates on allegations of vote-rigging will only worsen the situation.

As a sincere neighbour, the Islamic Republic of Iran has spared no efforts to help the brotherly Afghan people and will continue to work towards the bridging the gap among the various political, religious, and ethnic groups, for emergence of a political stable Afghanistan, no matter if the meddling Americans feel averse.