US attempts to build modern nations at the point of a gun are 0-3 this century. With a record like that any professional sports manager would be fired. Yet the Current Occupant flies half way around the world in a publicity stunt on a national holiday commemorating the sacrifice of American soldiers, sailors and airmen. To say his audience is captive is understatement; after all, he practically signs their paychecks! To be proud of America's record in the benighted hinterland of Afghanistan is simply calculated deceit. Even the successful assassination of the reputed terrorist mastermind is morally dubious, when he could have been captured alive or even killed in combat in Tora Bora years earlier. From the perspective of military effectiveness the assassination took too long to accomplish, at too high a price, with too much collateral damage. The Taliban insurgency still controls large swaths of the countryside after the longest war in the nation's history. Despite his campaign promise to remove all troops from the country by this year, the Current Occupant announced American forces will be in Afghanistan until 2016 and not coincidentally the end of his government.
Afghanistan's electoral commission had to fire more than 3,000 staff accused of fraud in the first round of the country's presidential election. Afghans voted last month to pick a successor to President Hamid Karzai who is barred from a third term after being in power for more than a decade. The independent election monitors say many complaints were ignored and the decision making process lacked transparency. The run-off is scheduled for June 14th but results will not be announced until July 22nd. The two front-running candidates are Abdullah Abdullah, an opposition leader, and former World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know which candidate has the backing of the US government. Ghani claimed after the final results were released that "800,000 that should have been declared fraudulent were included in the final count." Abdullah Abdullah led the first round results by as much as 14%.
In Libya the removal of inconvenient dictator Muammar al-Qaddafi by western military intervention has not brought democracy to the country. Rather Libya is being torn apart by rival militias which refused to disarm after the dictator was tortured and killed in the field. The rebels were aided by NATO airpower and probably would not have been successful against Qaddafi's security forces without it. Last Sunday, rebels loyal to General Khalifa Haftar stormed the parliament building in Tripoli looking for General National Congress members, the majority of whom are islamists. Western news reports say Haftar is now backed by the reinstated military government of Egypt; he was formerly supported by the CIA. Fierce fighting also broke out in Benghazi leaving 36 dead. Libya, once a functioning autocracy, is now a failed state. The government has been unable to assert control and build security forces loyal to it causing authorities to rely on militias for protection. The country's prime minister was temporarily abducted last year by rival militia members.
Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, brought to power with the help of American arms, recently won Iraq's parliamentary election. His coalition won 92 of 328 seats in parliament. But the win does not resolve the country's deep ethnic divisions and endemic violence. Last year according to the UN, 8,868 Iraqis were killed. Maliki still needs votes from other parties to reach the needed 164 to form a government. After the last parliamentary election that took nine months and produced an ineffective coalition government. During his time in office Maliki has become increasingly authoritarian, and has little support among Sunnis and Kurds who control a larger block of votes than Maliki. On Sunday a car bomb exploded outside a liquor store in Kirkuk killing at least 12 civilians. Militant islamists often target night clubs, liquor stores, and brothels. Kirkuk is an ethnically mixed city and comparatively prosperous from oil development. One Iraqi political commentator said Iraq is, "an absolute dysfunctional mess".