PG
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Afghan election - have another go....So, it's official. So many votes for Have a Khazi in the first round were faked that he didn't actually win. He has, apparently, been "congratulated" by the Americans and good old Brown about accepting the result of the investigation and furthering Afghan democracy. What do they mean? Congratulated that he nearly got away with it?
And as C4 news just pointed out, if he had to stuff the first election to get over 50%, he'll just have to do the same again. Great. Real progress.
So, we will now lose more British lives, defending polling stations so that the ballot boxes can be stuffed in safety.
What the f** is going on? Perhaps Brown is secretly quite jealous and would like to do the same to the upcoming General Election next year. Just stuffing the ballot boxes would be so much simpler (and cheaper) than trying to buy all those votes by creating a client state.
What must loved ones, parent and family of serving services people in Afghanistan think? "Oh it was all worthwhile. My husband died to support a fraudster."
Come Remembrance Sunday I hope some veteran punches a few politicians in the face. They deserve it.
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DaveGibson
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To some extent we already have a stuffed ballot because our electoral system is skewed in that Labour voting constituencies (principally in the inner cities, Scotland and Wales) tend to be significantly smaller than Conservative ones. I can't remember the specific figures but I think if parliamentary seat boundaries were reorganised so that all constituencies had similar sized electorates, Labour would lose thirty or more seats.The result is that the Conservatives need to get about 6% more votes across the board just to break even in terms of seats.
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woof woof
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Hmmm.
The Afghan's need a government, and we have one we don't want. I see the possibility of a trade, one goat for the lot of them?
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Mike Amos
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I noticed a very relaxed Mohamed Khazi on the news, he has obviously had lessons from our government and one ex-president bushed. How to look innocent even when you have fiddled expenses/elections/sanity tests etc.
As far as one goat for the whole government goes, steady on ol' chap, don't want to start inflationary tactics at this stage of the bonus plan, sorry, recovery. Make it a couple of shoulder joints and you may have a deal.
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scamper
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Re: Afghan election - have another go.... | PG wrote: |
What must loved ones, parent and family of serving services people in Afghanistan think? "Oh it was all worthwhile. My husband died to support a fraudster."
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Impossible to predict how you would react until faced with that situation but I think a large number of the troops supported by their families see it simply as their job with associated risks, and possibly see they are making a difference. I know Laura just wants to get out there, partly from a professional point of view and partly to get it over and done with.
And all he is doing by agreeing to a re-run is complying with his country's constitution!
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DradusContact
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| woof woof wrote: | Hmmm.
The Afghan's need a government, and we have one we don't want. I see the possibility of a trade, one goat for the lot of them? |
When goat prices are at an all time low? Seems like the perfect time to sell to me.
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PG
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Re: Afghan election - have another go.... | scamper wrote: | | .... I know Laura just wants to get out there, partly from a professional point of view and partly to get it over and done with. |
Sorry, I'd forgotten that the new Mrs scamper was due out there soon. I didn't mean to be provocative in my comment, just empathetic. When is she due to go?
| scamper wrote: | | .All he is doing by agreeing to a re-run is complying with his country's constitution! |
That was what got me about the "congratulations". He was being congratulated for complying with the constitution.
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scamper
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Re: Afghan election - have another go.... | PG wrote: | | scamper wrote: | | .... I know Laura just wants to get out there, partly from a professional point of view and partly to get it over and done with. |
Sorry, I'd forgotten that the new Mrs scamper was due out there soon. I didn't mean to be provocative in my comment, just empathetic. When is she due to go?
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Not at all provocative. Mrs Scamper is downgraded at the moment due to back problem, or she would have been out this year. Possibly looking at early next summer now after she finishes her flight phase training.
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woof woof
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I suppose we just can't know how honest or corrupt Khazi is generally or how much fraud he actually instigated, agreed to or knew about during the election. I suppose that it is at least possible that locals or underlings instigated a percentage of frauds to make sure that "their man" stayed in. Doubtless there are many people other than Khazi with a vested interest, one way or another.
He probably is corrupt, I just think that it's worthwhile not limiting scorn to the man at the top or even hoping that the next guy in will be significantly better.
Yes, British and other lives are being lost but if we're going to look at cold hard numbers, even just British cold hard numbers, it's worth remembering what the place was like before and imagining what it would be like if we pulled out and the implications for both the general death toll and the British death toll in particular.
I do think that it's unsettling to take a purely nationalistic view of the death toll but I suppose that's how public opinion increasingly views it. As Mrs T said, there's no such thing as community and I think that these days we can maybe extend that from a local level to an international level as we increasingly don't seem to care about the plight of others and the more remote they are from us in distance, culture or even creed maybe, the less we care.
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