What, like the U.S has never done that before?
"Kerry pushes Afghan runoff; Karzai asked to accept ruling; Decision may wait on extra US troops" by Farah Stockman, Globe Staff | October 19, 2009
WASHINGTON - Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations committee, has played a mediating role since he arrived in Kabul on Friday....
The election crisis has made a difficult situation in Afghanistan worse, raising the specter that US troops could be making sacrifices to defend a government that secured its authority through an election marred by massive vote-rigging....
Yeah, the criticism has been muted compared to what happened in Iran.
Oh, right, theirs' was a legitimate election and the U.S. helped rig this SOB.
Kerry closely coordinated his negotiations with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; Richard Holbrooke, the president’s special representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan; and US Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry....
Related: The Boston Globe's Hide-and-Seek: Obama's Doves
In addition to Kerry, Zalmay Khalilzad, a former US ambassador to Afghanistan, has been meeting with Afghan leaders to try to negotiate a settlement, which officials said could involve Abdullah Abdullah conceding defeat in exchange for a senior post in Karzai’s government....
See: Two Puppets Are Better Than One
And that is SOME CHANGE, huh?
Obama's team has a neo-con Bushite negotiating for it.
On Friday, Kerry dined with troops from Massachusetts in Kabul. Yesterday, he visited Marines in the war-torn Helmand Province and held a shura, or traditional meeting, with 275 elders....
The fraud allegations have stirred turmoil not only for the Afghan government, but for the United Nations. Peter Galbraith, the deputy to Kai Eide, the top UN official in Afghanistan, was dismissed a month ago after accusing his boss of sweeping election fraud under the rug....Related: Occupation Iraq: The Founding Father of Modern Iraq
“If we can have a runoff and get a decent turnout, that would be a way to put legitimacy back into the government,’’ said Representative John Tierney, a Salem Democrat who is slated to speak about Afghanistan at a roundtable at Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy today....
And he is allegedly one of your strongest liberal war critics, can you believe it?
But it was unclear last night whether Kerry was able to persuade the Afghan leader to accept the results of an election complaints investigation, which called for a runoff election....
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Who cares?
Also related: Afghanistan: The One-Day-a-Week War
