U.S. Policymakers See Potential Shift in Afghanistan - pbs

REP. JIM MCGOVERN: Well, President Karzai won by default. You know, this -- this whole election process was deeply flawed. We're told by Peter Galbraith that at least 30 percent of Karzai's vote was fraudulent.

And, you know, this is the guy that we're going to rally behind? I mean, do we really think that there can be a happy ending with this man, who has been there now for almost eight years? And corruption is not something new. Corruption has been a problem for all the time he's been there.

And, in the New York Times dispatch that just came out, he was asked if dealing with corruption might involve changing important ministers and officials, because as -- you know that some of the people he's appointed are of questionable character, his response was, these problems cannot be solved by changing high-ranking officials. We will review the laws and see what problems there are in the laws.

I don't believe he's serious about changing the character of his government. And -- and I, quite, frankly am very, very concerned about the future of our policy.

JAMES DOBBINS: You know, Afghanistan is not surrounded by Italy, France, Germany, and Austria. It's surrounded by Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Iran. How many of those have legitimate governments? They don't even have elections.

After all, we didn't invade Afghanistan for the benefit of the Afghans. We invaded Afghanistan for the benefit of the Americans, because of the attack on 9/11. And we have not stayed there for the benefit of the Afghans.

We have stayed there for the benefit of Americans, because we don't want future attacks to be launched by -- from Afghanistan or from neighboring societies, all of whom would be radicalized if Afghanistan plunges back into widespread civil war. ... - Karzai Presidency May Pose New Challenge for Afghan Strategy
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Afghanistan's Next Steps Unclear as Karzai Gets Second Term