Why Would Election Fraud in Afghanistan Make People Think the Government Is Illegitimate? « The Washington Independent
Jul 31, 2020522.2K Shares7.2M Views
More from today’s funtime White House presser. Jake Tapper of ABC askedRobert Gibbs about the Afghanistan election:
“„TAPPER: President Obama last month in Pittsburgh said, of the Afghan elections and the aftermath, “What’s most important is that there’s a sense of legitimacy in Afghanistan among the Afghan people for their government.” Is there a sense of legitimacy in Afghanistan among the Afghan people for the Karzai government?
“„GIBBS: Well, I have no reason to believe there’s not.
Gibbs’ answer actually gets worse from there!
To be clear: there’s a good meta-point here, but it’s slathered underneath this nonsense. Americans should not substitute ourjudgments about the election for Afghanjudgments. It’s the Afghans’perspective that matters when it comes to the crucial question of governmental legitimacy, not ours. But at the same time, Gibbs has every reasonto believe there isn’t a sense of legitimacy about Karzai among the Afghan people, because a full third of his votes were thrown out due to fraud concerns. Hundreds of thousands of ballots!
It will help to have a credible poll taken in the coming weeks to determine what Afghans think about Karzai’s legitimacy. That will actually determine the issue. But please — let’s not act like we’re without common sense.
Paolo Reyna
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Paolo Reyna is a writer and storyteller with a wide range of interests. He graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies.
Paolo enjoys writing about celebrity culture, gaming, visual arts, and events. He has a keen eye for trends in popular culture and an enthusiasm for exploring new ideas. Paolo's writing aims to inform and entertain while providing fresh perspectives on the topics that interest him most.
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