Afghanistan War News Updates -- October 12, 2009

An election worker opens a ballot box during the audit and recount process, at a warehouse in Kabul, Afghanistan. Ahmad Masood / Reuters

How the Afghan Election Was Rigged -- Time Magazine

No one will ever know how Afghans voted in their country's presidential elections on Aug. 20, 2009. Seven weeks after the polling, the U.N.-backed Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) is still trying to separate fraudulent tallies from ballots. In some provinces, many more votes were counted than were cast. E.U. election monitors characterize 1.5 million votes as suspect, which would include up to one-third of the votes cast for incumbent President Hamid Karzai. Once fraud occurs on the scale of what took place in Afghanistan, it is impossible to untangle.

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More News On Afghanistan

UN Official Defends Afghanistan Election Despite Widespread Fraud -- L.A. Times
Afghan quits election fraud panel -- BBC
Watchdog alters Afghan recount rules, member quits -- Reuters
UN Official Acknowledges ‘Widespread Fraud’ in Afghan Election -- New York Times
UN Official Says He Did Not Ignore Afghan Fraud -- Washington Post
Afghan member of panel investigating vote resigns -- Yahoo News/AP
NATO backs UN Afghan mission after leadership spat -- Yahoo News/AFP

Troop Levels Are Still Focus of Debate -- New York Times
US Marines sweep 'Taliban' villages for home-made bombs -- L.A. Times
US, Afghan troops kill 20 insurgents: officials -- AFP
25 militants killed and injured in S Afghanistan -- China View
Advancing Marines test new Afghan war doctrine -- Reuters
US soldier killed by IED in Afghanistan: NATO -- AFP
FACTBOX: Security developments in Afghanistan, Oct 10 -- Reuters

Afghanistan’s Civilian Surge Sputters -- Wired News
Civilian Goals Largely Unmet in Afghanistan -- New York Times
US civilian program for Afghanistan failing: report -- AFP
Armed Social Work and Rules of Engagement in Garmsir Afghanistan -- Captain's Journal

Senator: Afghanistan Mission In Jeopardy -- Time Magazine/AP
McCain, Feinstein demand more Afghan troops -- Washington Times
Top Democrat backs more U.S. troops for Afghanistan -- Reuters

Clinton says Afghanistan's Karzai needs to change -- Reuters
Clinton: 'New Relationship' with Karzai is Needed -- Voice of America

Commentaries And Analysis

Counterintuitive counterinsurgency -- Richard Fontaine and John Nagl, L.A. Times
Time for Decisiveness on Afghanistan -- The Atlantic
When generals and presidents collide, the commander in chief wins -- USA Today
Afghanistan: Obama's Unanswered Questions -- CBS News
The real Afghan lessons from Vietnam - Lewis Sorley, Wall Street Journal opinion
What Failure in Afghanistan? -- Fareed Zakaria, Washington Post opinion
Generals and Politics -- Times online
Counterintuitive Counterinsurgency -- Richard Fontaine and John Nagl, Los Angeles Times opinion
The Obama-McChrystal Gap -- Jed Babbin, Human Events
Generals and Politics -- The Times editorial