You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
Submit your comments on this article
Afghanistan
JD, Haji & JD are Driving Through Kabul
2009-08-06
Hattip Instapundit. Just a blog post as JD Johannes arrives in Kabul. Photos, a brief video, some information about the Afghan election campaign. Go read the whole thing, then go to his home page to get the background in his previous posts.
Sounds like the set for a joke, but I was met at the airport by two Afghans who work with a friend of mine in the logistics business.

Kabul International is a busy airport. Several regional airlines run daily flights around Afghanistan and between international destinations like Dubai and New Delhi. The baggage claim system in the new terminal works well and as an airport, it could compare with smaller, regional airports in places like Topeka, KS.

I was met by two local Afghans who took me on a driving tour of Kabul and then on to Bagram. JD is short for Jawad, he is a Hazar, an ethnic group in the north/central part of Iraq. And Haji, my driver, is Haji because he has made the Haj. Haji fought for the Taliban back in the day before taking up a career as a chauffer.

We took the scenic route, winding through Kabul from the airport to the Intercontinental Hotel, where I we had lunch with a friend of mine from Iraq who is working with NDI running a team of election monitors.

The drive in a regular Toyota 4-Runner was a thrill. No armor, no weapons, just three guys driving across town—but that isn't what made it a thrill—Kabul is a relatively safe city and driving low profile, looking like every other Afghan on the road, is the safest way to move around the city.

What made it dangerous is Afghans love playing chicken on the pot-hole strewn roads which lack lane markings or any of the conventions of western roads. And Haji is one fearless Pashtun. I'm beginning to think a traffic accident is going to kill me before a bullet.

The Afghan voting system is very rare. In fact I had never heard of such a thing until it was explained to me today. I'm not even sure if I can describe it yet.

But it looks like campaign season. Signs are everywhere. Candidates are advertising. Karzai signs are everywhere. The national candidates are all running negative campaigns. No one has a positive agenda. Much of the politics is based on ethnicity and tribal loyalty so the national candidates are trying to build ethnic/tribal coalitions.
Politics is fun. More fun than simply gunning down the opposition, after which they're dead and can't seethe impotently properly appreciate that you won and they lost. And it allows the common folk to air their concerns to their future rulers, which is so much more satisfying to the dears than being cannon fodder. Finally, what could be better than everywhere seeing large posters of oneself looking ever so handsome, and turning on the television to catch yet another report of oneself surrounded by adoring crowds? Then too, there is the handing out of favours and the wheeling and dealing to look forward to, both demonstrating to the onlooking world how terribly clever and powerful one is.
Posted by:trailing wife

00:00