Listeners of Radio VR and readers of the voiceofrussia.com and en.ria.ru/radio/ discuss present, past and future of Afghanistan. Afghanistan is on crossroads – what do the elections hold? What kind of future will the country have? We have interviewed a number of experts and gathered your input. Outlook is not so bright. Afghan presidential contender Abdullah Abdullah dubbed the preliminary results of the presidential runoff held last month as "a coup against the people". He refused to recognize the victory of his rival Ashraf Ghani. So, what do experts think?
For example Kevin DeJesus, Adjunct Professor of the Department of Social Sciences at Johnson and Wales University, makes a point that Ghani is a well-experienced leader, and a scholar. He has notably worked in top-ranking positions, so he possesses a good degree of political activeness "in terms of understanding, perceiving, performing his role," the spokesman notes. Whether he wins with a greater or a smaller margin, following election checks and all the necessary audits, his role of a leader or, alternatively, of a key government member, is already cemented, the expert stresses. Check out our website for more opinions and share yours with us!
And here is what our listeners and readers think:
Ferrukh Mir wrote:
"Evolving scenario at the end of second round of Afghan presidential election could be explosive, if the election rigging disputes are not settled to the satisfaction of election contenders. Afghanistan internal societal dynamics, agenda of sitting president, US led NATO regional plans, stakes of Afghanistan neighbors, Afghan Taliban strategy will play decisive role. A slight miscalculation will turn the table. Here things will deteriorate more quickly compared to Iraq post US led NATO withdrawal, because main rival to occupying forces, the Taliban are already present having years of experience of fighting, which [Afghanistan's army] doesn't have. If 140,000 plus NATO forces could not eliminate Taliban, would left over 10,000 be able to do some thing to control chaos?..."Michael Walsh commented: "Is the West ever able to bring anything back to normal after their jackboots and bankers have plundered it? Here is an idea. Do not invade the sovereignty of other countries in the first place; that way they stay normal; they do not need to return to it."
Meanwhile, the situation in the Middle East is no less dire. On June 29 Israel stated it would support the creation of a Kurdish state. Why is it supporting the Kurds? Taking into account ISIS onslaught in the Middle East, what new challenges does the emerging regional architecture pose to Israel? Dr. Ofra Bengio, Senior Research Fellow for MidEast and African studies at the Tel Aviv University says: "I think we do not always see eye-to-eye with the US’s policy on many things. So, this is one of the areas where Israel, probably, do not see eye-to-eye. And one of the reasons is, it seems to me, that the policy of the US on Iraq is detached from the reality. They can declare day and night that they want Iraqi unity, but Iraqi unity is elusive, it doesn’t exist anymore, especially after what the ISIS did in Iraq and when all the turbulences are taking place in Iran."
