While you were sleeping………… 7pm Australian time (that’s 3am Eastern US) the news broke……
Abdullah pulls out of Afghan run-off election.
Opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah announced on Sunday that he was pulling out of this week’s run-off presidential election in Afghanistan.
“The decision which I am going to announce was not an easy one. It was a decision that I have taken after wide-ranging consultations, with the people of Afghanistan, my supporters and influential leaders,” Abdullah told supporters.
“In protest against the misconduct of the government and the Independent Election Commission (IEC), I will not participate in the election,” he added.
Abdullah’s decision is set to plunge Afghanistan into further uncertainty with the country in political limbo since the first round of voting on August 20, which was tainted by widespread vote-rigging.
Follow-up article about an hour later…….. with commentary by Hillary Clinton.
Asked whether the outcome of a run-off with only one candidate would result in a legitimate government, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday that such situations are “not unprecedented.”
“We see that happen in our own country where, for whatever combination of reasons, one of the candidates decides not to go forward. I don’t think it has anything to do with the legitimacy of the election,” she said.
“I’m not going to comment on what any of the candidates might decide to do,” Clinton said, adding: “It’s a personal choice which may or may not be made.”
====================
Well then, I’ll comment, Ms. Clinton. You see, it’s like this: Disingenuous people know no bounds, especially when…………. Ahhh….. I’m wasting my time here…… Nobody’s going to care…… Y’all will take this simply as a weekend/overnight news dump.
Besides, why should it matter to anyone that there’s tens of thousands of American Armed Forces members stationed in Afghanistan not allowed to fight a war, and still waiting for their Commander-In-Chief to make a decision from a request received OVER THREE MONTHS AGO to get them some help.
—————
Hey, can we still call it a war, or is it now just “an enhanced and extended conflict resolution exercise resulting from a man-caused disaster” ?
Kenny Solomon
Senior Expediter
The 72 Virgins Club Travel Agency
Bacon-wrapped rounds a specialty.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Daniel Horowitz
Jake Walker
Victoria Coates
Morning Kenny...
NeoKong (Diary) Sunday, November 1st at 9:06AM EST (link)How’s it going…?
Been seeing you around the internet lately.
Your name pops up everywhere.
I gotta’say…this Hilllary thing is an embarrassment. The fact that she is the face of the U.S. overseas is a disgrace. Those poor people are embroiled in war and death and brutality and the best we can do is send some incompetent pampered American princess who thinks suffering means having to carry your own luggage.
How can those people take her as serious ?
Follow me on Twitter.
It was always going to be President Karzai for another five-year term...
rbdwiggins (Diary) Sunday, November 1st at 9:23AM EST (link)It was never about the results of the Afghan run-off election. That was just a convenient cover-story. President Obama has been waiting for the election results much closer to home and will make the critical decision on troop levels in Afghanistan based on the severity of the Democrats’ electoral defeat.
“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” – Ronald Reagan
Why is the election corruption in Afghanistan such a surprise?
nessa (Diary) Sunday, November 1st at 2:02PM EST (link)Our State Department and other government reps are deeply involved in “advising” the Afghans how to operate their new central government. Bal?t? is Pashtun for Acorn…
“If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams
Contributor to Unified Patriots
teh twitter
Obama: No decision on Afghanistan reinforcements for several more weeks.
Kenny Solomon (Diary) Sunday, November 1st at 10:43PM EST (link)More than three months have passed since General McChrystal officially requested additional forces.
I can’t bring myself to comment on what you see below, as I’m way to enraged to behave with any measure of civility.
Here’s an Associated Press report from approximately 4:30 pm today (Eastern US time).
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091101/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_us_afghanistan
Axelrod said Obama would announce a war strategy “within weeks.” A senior U.S. official told The Associated Press that Obama has still not yet decided what to do, and it remains unclear whether he will decide before he goes to Asia on Nov. 11.
RE:Obama: No decision on Afghanistan reinforcements for several more weeks.
DavidS1787 (Diary) Sunday, November 1st at 11:01PM EST (link)Since Obama thinks he is a general smarter than Gen. McChrystal Obama’s hand picked man , Gen. Petraeus and Gen. McChrystal should quit on Obama for being so indecisive!
I've calmed down a bit......... Leaders do not quit on their subordinates...... Ever.
Kenny Solomon (Diary) Monday, November 2nd at 12:32AM EST (link)Nor do leaders delay in decision making.
Right or wrong, leaders make a decision in a timely manner.
In actual combat, a timely manner is usually within a few seconds, or less.
I will defer the import of command decisions sometimes requiring a bit of time “to run the numbers”.
However, when a serving officer of the line (in this case, the theater commander) requests what amounts to operational immediate reinforcements in a very liquid environment and the commander-in-chief-the-buck-stops-here delays that decision for over 90 days, something is amiss on a grand scale….. where that serving officer of the line could begin to wonder if his boss is capable of decision-making at any level in support of his or any command.
General McChrystal has found himself to be within that rock-and-hard-place zone, where whatever he does or says could be taken by the commander-in-chief-the-buck-stops-here as insubordination, or worse.
I do not put ANYTHING past the commander-in-chief-the-buck-stops-here in abdicating his oath of office and ignoring his sworn duties as the commander-in-chief-the-buck-stops-here of the armed forces of The United States of America in order to bring our nation to it’s knees in front of the world.
They do when they are wrong........
DavidS1787 (Diary) Monday, November 2nd at 1:54AM EST (link)and Obama has very disrespeced Gen. McChrystal.
Gen. McChrystal was asked to do a job and he did it. He made a report that was on the desk since Aug. 30,2009. Obama needed to read it and make a decision. And he hasn’t. How many more of our troops have to die while Obama doddles around.
Hillary is Secretary of State? Who knew?
bk (Diary) Sunday, November 1st at 11:21PM EST (link)I thought either Biden or Kerry had taken on a dual role.
Oh wait, Kerry took Secretary of Defense as his part time job.
This administration is making Jimmy Carter’s motley crew look like a well-oiled machine.
Re: They do when they are wrong........
DavidS1787 (Diary) Monday, November 2nd at 2:09AM EST (link)The tittle should have read You quit on subordinates when the man at the top can’t make his own decisions……….