Thursday, November 13, 2008

Commentary: Letter to Obama -- How to rescue war in Afghanistan

Afghanistan has a chronic 40 percent official unemployment rate. It also has a desperate need for new roads and dams, and must repair the agricultural aqueducts destroyed by years of war. Meanwhile, Kabul and other major Afghan cities are awash in debris and trash. Cleaning up that rubbish would have a salutary effect on the residents of those cities.

5. Hold a free, fair and secure election in 2009.

Looking ahead, it is vitally important that the presidential election scheduled for August, when Hamid Karzai's five-year term as president is up, be seen as fair and inclusive as possible. NATO and the United States will have to pay the costs of the election -- hundreds of millions of dollars the Afghan government simply doesn't have -- and focus on providing security, particularly in the south, so the election can go forward without significant interference from the Taliban.
Commentary: Letter to Obama -- How to rescue war in Afghanistan ...

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