Kerry Saves U.S.’s $100 Billion Afghan Investment With Deal on Vote Audit

[Purveyor]

By Sangwon Yoon and Eltaf Najafizada Jul 14, 2014 1:10 PM ET

With Afghanistan headed for a post-election crisis that had some analysts concerned about a civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry helped salvage an agreement during a 44-hour visit to Kabul.

Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai, the leader in last month’s vote, and Abdullah Abdullah, who disputed the result, agreed to an audit of all the votes and the formation of a unity government in a pact brokered late on July 12 by Kerry and Jan Kubis, the United Nations envoy in Afghanistan. The candidates hugged and raised their arms hand-in-hand before cameras.

“It’s a shockingly good result under the circumstances,” Graeme Smith, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group in Kabul, said in an e-mail. “There’s still a long way to go before we get a new presidential administration, but the chances are good that Afghanistan will make history with its first peaceful handover of power from one elected president to another, and that’s no small feat.”

The deal paves the way for the winning candidate to sign a pact that would keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond this year, securing billions of dollars in aid and preserving gains made since 2001. The U.S. spent about $93 billion in military and economic assistance to Afghanistan from the Taliban’s ouster through September 2013, with another $6.1 billion budgeted for this year, the Congressional Research Service said in May.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-13/kerry-saves-u-s-s-afghanistan-investment-with-vote-deal.html

[Octafish]

1. Way to go, Secretary Kerry!

Here's hoping for the best in Afghanistan, a country we've helped tear up for 35 years now.

[karynnj]

2. Amazing work by Kerry

Obviously, had the stalemate continued, there could have been no viable government there. As needed as that was, getting the two sides together and cooperating may be as important as actually resolving the election itself. If this holds, we may have given Afghanistan a chance they otherwise might not have had.

I loved this article on the Afghan reaction - http://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/john-kerry-hailed-hero-after-brokering-afghan-election-deal-n155216

[underpants]

3. See what happens when you have ability and talk with people?

Not just runnin' 'round like Yosemite Sam BLAM! BLAM! shootin' 'n' cussin'

[karynnj]

4. The CSM has some insight on the agreement to have a unity government

Apparently it could correct the US/Bush influenced strong president government to a more inclusive government.

The United States-backed and guided Afghan constitution that was put in place a decade ago created a powerful, almost king-like authority for Hamid Karzai, the man hand-picked by the George W. Bush administration to run the country.
<snip>
But that's not really the important bit. It appears that Kerry extracted from both men a promise to work towards creating a new arrangement that would end the supreme powers of the Afghan presidency.

Here's the key bit from the UN statement on the agreement: "The agreement also includes the formation of a government of national unity upon the declaration of the final results of the Presidential election."

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Security-Watch/Backchannels/2014/0714/Did-Kerry-just-ditch-America-s-vision-for-Afghanistan

[JI7]

5. these are the details that the Bush administration didn't care for

and we see what happened in Iraq. if Bush or another republican in office imagine the disaster this would have been.

btw, the pics from this deal with Kerry are great.

[mylye2222]

6. The big problem is that this GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENT,

has been under relayed by the corporate media as always....As it it was a kind of forbid rule to no highlight Kerry's succesfull works...