Quote:
KABUL (Reuters) - The Taliban and their al Qaeda allies are stepping up plans to disrupt Afghanistan (news - web sites)'s first direct presidential election on Oct. 9, the head of the U.S.-led coalition said on Saturday.
"We have seen indications that they have no other option," Lieutenant-General David Barno told a news conference in Kabul.
"For all terrorists in the region ... disrupting the election is part of their agenda."
Barno said an insurgency that has seen over 1,000 deaths since August last year was being waged by a "tiny minority," and that the rest of the world owed it to Afghanistan to stand by them beyond the election period.
"Our challenge ... is to rise up to the level of resolve shown daily here by our hosts, the people of Afghanistan, he said. "We must remain resolute, we must stay the course."
More than 17,000 U.S. and allied troops are fighting an insurgency waged by the Taliban, overthrown in 2001 for supporting Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) and his al Qaeda network, architects of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai is expected to defeat 17 opponents standing against him in the election
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If elections are delayed, the Dems will blame Bush for not using all his power to install democracy, if only a fraction of Iraqis get to vote, then Bush and his Iraqi gov't puppets are "tampering with the voting procedures" and therefore hurting the democratic process. In Afghanistan as in Iraq, the insurgents are anti-democratic and they want to disrupt the elections so in my opinion, any step forward towards democracy is a big improvement for Iraq/Afghanistan.
Serge