NR: "We may have a
result...But we're still a long way off from that
credible partner that America so desperately
seeks."
Monday, November 02, 2009
Length: 7:57
LARGE (92.5 MB)
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SMALL (9.8 MB)
TJ Holmes talks to Michael (in New York) and Ed
Henry (at the White House) for reaction to the
cancellation of the runoff election in Afghanistan
and the subsequent declaring of Hamid Karzai as the
winner.
T.J.
HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a win is a win is a win,
right? Even if the election is tainted, the runoff is
canceled and the legitimacy of the whole process now
in question. At least in public, the White House is
standing by the officially re-elected president of
Afghanistan.
CNN's Ed Henry joins me live in just a moment with
how Afghan politics impacts the war in general, and
U.S. strategy in particular.
Also, we're going to be hearing from our friend and
colleague, Michael Ware. There he is. He's in New
York for us. He knows the leaders, the soldiers, the
tribes, the insurgents. He knows it all inside and
out, and also the prospects for peace post-election.
Well, you heard him live here last hour. The White
House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, saying Americans
should take heart that democracy has prevailed in
Afghanistan. A fairly elected, widely accepted Afghan
president has long been seen as a prime weapon in
beating back the Taliban, but is Hamid Karzai the
guy?
Well, our guy at the White House, Ed Henry, was in
that press briefing.
Ed, I was listening. I know you all were trying and
trying and trying to pin Robert Gibbs down and get
him to call this man credible and legitimate. He
didn't seem to want to go that far.
ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He
did not, T.J. You're right.
Robert Gibbs clearly was ducking the question as to
whether or not Hamid Karzai is a credible partner. In
fact, suggesting he's not. Instead, saying at one
point, he's the legitimate leader of Afghanistan,
given the fact that this process is moving forward.
But that's a far cry from what the White House has
been laying out and saying it needs in recent days,
saying it needs a credible partner as President Obama
mulls sending up to 40,000 more U.S. troops to the
war. Instead, saying he's the legitimate leader.
The other big question, of course, when is the
president going to make this decision? You'll
remember the White House chief of staff, Rahm
Emanuel, a couple of weeks back said that they would
have to wait until after the November 7th runoff to
see who the leader is going to be in Afghanistan to
make this decision about troop levels. Well, I
pressed Robert Gibbs on the fact, you now know who
that leader is. It's President Karzai. When will the
president make this decision?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We
obviously now know who the government is going to be,
so I think some of the conversations that I just
alluded to can take place with who we know is going
to lead the country. I think the decision still will
be made in the coming weeks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HENRY: So, all Robert Gibbs would say there is that a
decision will be made in coming weeks. He's been
saying that for weeks, so it's really nothing new
despite the fact that we have these new developments.
And so, we're trying to find out what the president
still needs to mull here before making this decision.
I can tell you, just in the last few moments, the
House Republican leader, John Boehner, up on Capitol
Hill, has put out a statement saying the last hurdle
for the president to make a decision, figuring out
who the leader in Afghanistan is, has been cleared.
And John Boehner charging that the president is
putting young men and women, U.S. troops, in danger
every day he waits on this decision. So you see the
pressure building -- T.J.
HOLMES: All right.
Ed Henry for us at the White House.
Ed, we appreciate you, as always.
HENRY: Thank you.
HOLMES: And a lot of people ask the question, why
would anybody even be willing to take on the job of
Afghan president? That's a pretty good question, some
would say, but we also wonder how a second term for
Karzai will sit with the people who voted for him or
maybe those that didn't vote for him, or maybe those
who didn't vote at all.
CNN's Michael Ware joins us now with some insights
here.
Michael, hello to you.
Do you buy what the White House is selling here,
essentially that they now have a legitimate, credible
guy in place? He has now been elected fairly and
whatever else they might say, and freely? Do you buy
it, that he is now legitimate?
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well,
I mean, I think that's a very flowery way for the
White House to basically put, this is the only guy
we've got, this is the only guy we were ever going to
get, and this is the guy we're going to have to deal
with. And, I mean, relations between Karzai and the
Obama White House have been strained since the Obama
administration came into power.
It's also the White House that forced Karzai a couple
of weeks ago to accept the runoff in the first place.
And I'm sure there was much pressure to get Abdullah
to accept -- to now pull out of that runoff.
So, do they have a credible partner? No. They're not
going to have that for quite some time. But the
Afghan people will accept this result, because at the
end of the day, it's the only one they're going to
get.
And runoff or not, it's one bunch of warlords and
their cronies versus another anyway. So, the result
ultimately isn't that different from what the Afghans
expected. It's just a different, more tortuous road.
HOLMES: Well, Michael, because of the way it went
down, because you had this whole issue with the
runoff, and then you had Abdullah drop out, and now
it's been declared official, how much damage did
Abdullah Abdullah do by dropping out? How much damage
-- and it sounds like maybe listening to you that
Karzai was going to be seen as illegitimate in some
ways anyway. But how much damage did Abdullah do to
him by dropping out of the runoff?
WARE: Well, yeah, I think to have a runoff election
obviously would have added at least some semblance of
greater legitimacy to the mandate from the people
that whoever the winner was would receive. But when
you weigh out the costs financially of attempting a
runoff like that, given the timing and the logistics,
and given that this is against the backdrop of
violent Taliban opposition to this poll, in one sense
Abdullah pulling out is the best thing for everyone,
including Karzai. I mean, at least he's in power.
And to be honest, the Afghan people wouldn't have
expected anything much different to this. I mean, we
saw stories emerge in the last week or so that
President Karzai's brother is on the CIA payroll.
Well, to the Afghans, that would have been a case of,
yeah, and what's your point? They assume that.
So, to have Karzai return, Abdullah pull out, it's
the best of a worst situation even for the Afghan
people -- T.J.
HOLMES: And one last thing here. And Robert Gibbs
talked about this, and you alluded to it a minute
ago. And it sound like -- I mean, we sit here in the
U.S., and we're watching what's happening over there
and talking about the legitimacy of Karzai. But the
people there, Robert Gibbs seems to think that they
think -- that the Afghans think they have a
legitimate leader in Karzai.
I mean, you've been there. You talk to these folks
day in, day out. Is this, like you were saying, just
a case of dance with the devil you've got?
WARE: Absolutely. I mean, at least the people know
Karzai.
According to one of my colleagues at CNN, the running
joke on the street was, well, at least if Karzai was
thrown out of office, and new ones came in, their
fear was that, well, Karzai's already filled his
pockets with the money. You know, a return of Karzai
would save us. Hopefully he wouldn't be as greedy as
someone just coming in.
I mean, that's the kind of cynicism that people on
the street see their government. So, really, the
Afghan people are just going to go with the flow.
They're going to make the most of it.
The real question -- you're going to have the Afghans
come along, because they've got very little choice --
how's the White House going to handle it? How is it
going to repair its relationship with Karzai, and how
is it going to establish a credible partner with him
or, indeed, anyone when they haven't been able to do
so until now?
We may have a result. We may have an accepted new
president or return of the incumbent. But we're still
a long way off from that credible partner that
America so desperately seeks -- T.J.
HOLMES: Michael Ware, we appreciate your insights, as
always. Appreciate you hopping in that chair for us.
Thanks so much. We'll see you again soon, buddy.
WARE: Cheers, mate.