Clinton Tries To Spin Afghan Runoff Fiasco

By Steve Hynd

Alternative post title: Spin, Spin As Fast As You Can...

Yesterday, the BBC spoke to opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah's senior adviser Ahmed Wali Massoud about the Afghan election run-off. He confirmed other reports by not-too-anonymous Western diplomats that Abdullah was thinking about dropping out of the race over fraud concerns.

"The fact is that the infrastructure of this fraud is still there. Almost 1.5 million votes were rigged. Nothing has changed," he told the BBC.

"So if you go back and do the second round election, it means that it will happen again. So, therefore, I don't think that we would be willing to participate."

A final announcement by Abdullah is expected Sunday. Which means that, behind the scenes, SUV-loads of Western bigwigs will be beating a path to his door trying desperately to salvage the elections that they all said before the fact would establish the legitimacy of the U.S.-led military presence there.

It's likely that those same bigwigs have also been whispering in President Karzai's ear about the need to preserve a whisp of due process. His tame electoral body,the I.E.C., has said that it's too late for Abdullah to withdraw even if he wanted to. But with Abdullah reportedly having already stopped campaigning, its a very thin whisp indeed to hang an occupation by over 100,000 troops on.

So Secretary Clinton is in full spin mode:

Clinton, who was asked whether the outcome of a run-off with only one candidate would result in a legitimate government, said such situations are "not unprecedented" and occur in the United States and other countries.

"We see that happen in our own country where, for whatever combination of reasons, one of the candidates decides not to go forward. I don't think it has anything to do with the legitimacy of the election," she said.

The notion that the Afghan election has anything in common with U.S. elections, even with Diebold's fabled help, is ridiculous. Abdullah, if he withdraws, will do so because of widespread, rampant and open fraud by even the IEC's own members, with the aquiesence of the UN's watchdog body. Karzai was parachuted in by the U.S. as a puppet and has only recently shaken of some of his strings - much to American consternation. Oh yeah - and there's a war on!

As soon as the initial results in the original election round came in, there were reports that Richard Holbrooke was pressuring Abdullah to concede to Karzai. Then, when the extent of the fraud became obvious, Holbrooke tried to spin it as simply "irregularities" and say there'd be less in the run-off even though it was plain that the Karzai camp were setting up for more fraud. Clinton's comments are off a piece with Holbrooke's and signal a desperation within the Obama administration.

They'll say or try anything to put a thin fig leaf of international "legitimacy" on the ongoing occupation. In Afghanistan, of course, there's no such fig leaf to be had. Corruption, heavy-handed tactics and bullying US-allied narco-warlords have already ensured that everyone who might be inclined to sympathise with the Taliban or a nationalist insurgency has already done so.