Afghanistan’s presidential election, the vote nobody won?

It is a measure of how bleak prospects look in Afghanistan that America and its allies have been scrambling to present the presidential election held there on August 20th as a great success. “A bad day for the Taliban and a good day for the people of Afghanistan”, cheered Britain’s ambassador. In fact, the reverse is true. The task facing the new government and the foreign powers that will back it was always daunting. The election has made it even harder.

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