COMMENT Great hope is being placed in this week’s elections in Afghanistan and in the strategic review due from General Stanley McChrystal, the US commander on the ground. Yet, there is also widespread fear that this hope may be misplaced.
President Hamid Karzai, in whom the west placed exaggerated expectations five years ago, looks set to be re-elected. But now he appears hostile to a US and UK that, dismayed at the implosion of his government under the weight of corruption and attrition, have tried to undermine him.
