{"id":15641,"date":"2021-02-27T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-27T21:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=15641"},"modified":"2024-09-11T16:01:27","modified_gmt":"2024-09-11T20:01:27","slug":"the-afghanization-of-american-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Afghanization of American Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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American Institute for Economic Research<\/a>, February 27, 2021<\/h3>\n

Is the U.S. Going the Way of Afghanistan?<\/a><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n
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\"JamesJames Bovard<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Acrimony and recriminations continue to swirl around the 2020 presidential election. Three out of four Republicans believe that there was \u201cwidespread fraud\u201d<\/a> in the election, while Democrats have sought to turn criticisms of the election into a \u201cBig Lie\u201d heresy against democracy. Senior congressional Democrats are pressuring the nation\u2019s largest cable providers to cease carrying<\/a> conservative networks such as Fox News that raised too many questions about Biden\u2019s victory.<\/p>\n

What could possibly go wrong with sweeping the 2020 election controversies under the rug? Clues can be found in a recent report<\/a>, \u201cElections: Lessons from the U.S. Experience in Afghanistan,\u201d produced by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). That report contains more wisdom than will be found in President Trump\u2019s idiotic tweet in December: \u201cA young military man working in Afghanistan told me that elections in Afghanistan are far more secure and much better<\/a> run than the USA\u2019s 2020 Election.\u201d<\/p>\n

Actually, \u201cAfghan democracy\u201d is one of the most brazen shams of U.S. foreign policy in this century<\/strong>. Since the U.S. invasion in 2001, the federal government has spent more than $600 million to support elections and democratic procedures in Afghanistan (part of the $143 billion<\/a> the U.S. spent there for relief and reconstruction there). Hamid Karzai, the smooth operator who the Bush administration installed to rule Afghanistan after 9\/11, won a rigged 2004<\/a> presidential election. President George W. Bush boasted during his reelection campaign, \u201cAfghanistan has now got a constitution which talks about freedom of religion and talks about women\u2019s rights<\/a>\u2026. Democracy is flourishing.\u201d A few years later, Karzai won support from fundamentalist voters by approving a law entitling a husband to starve his wife<\/a> to death if she refused his sexual demands.<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama justified his troop surge in Afghanistan to bolster its democracy. When Obama spoke to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in August 2009, he boasted that \u201cour troops are helping to secure polling places<\/a> for this week\u2019s election so that Afghans can choose the future that they want.\u201d At first glance, Karzai won a narrow victory. But two weeks after the election, the New York Times<\/em> reported that Karzai\u2019s operatives set up as many as 800 fictitious polling sites \u201cwhere no one voted<\/a> but where hundreds of thousands of ballots were still recorded toward the president\u2019s re-election.\u201d In some Afghan provinces, pro-Karzai ballots outnumbered actual voters by tenfold. Peter Galbraith, a senior United Nations official in Afghanistan, was fired after he estimated that a third of Karzai\u2019s votes were bogus. Galbraith wrote, \u201cNo amount of spin can obscure the fact that we spent upwards of $200 million on an election that has been a total fiasco<\/a>\u201d which \u201chanded the Taliban its greatest strategic victory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the shenanigans, the Obama administration praised Karzai as if he had won fair and square. The Obama administration told Congress that the decision to send far more U.S. troops to Afghanistan depended on the Afghan government\u2019s \u201cability to hold credible elections<\/a>,\u201d among other tests. After the 2009 Afghan election turned into a sham, Obama decided it was \u201cclose enough for government work\u201d to democracy. Thanks to Obama\u2019s surge, 1,400 American soldiers died in part to propagate the mirage of Afghan democracy.<\/p>\n

Afghan officials have conspired for more than 15 years to both multiply and ignore election fraud. As early as 2009, U.S. Admiral Mike Mullen, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned that the result was that the Afghan government\u2019s legitimacy \u201cis, at best, in question right<\/a> now and, at worst, doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d An analysis by the U.S. Agency for International Development of the 2014 Afghan election noted that \u201cseveral prominent election officials associated with fraud during past elections were promoted or given ministerial<\/a> appointments.\u201d Afghanistan\u2019s 2019 presidential election was \u201cthe most corrupt<\/a> the country had ever held,\u201d according to some experts SIGAR consulted.<\/p>\n

U.S tax dollars poured into the coffers of Afghanistan\u2019s Electoral Complaints Commission (ECC) to safeguard voting. Alas \u2013 that agency was a prime source of the most brazen vote stealing. ECC bosses were careful not to hire almost anyone with electoral experience since such folks might raise troubling questions. A former top ECC official told SIGAR that \u201cone criterion for chief electoral officer applicants in 2018 was how well the candidates were dressed<\/a>. He said this category was used as a pretext to reduce the scores of less pliable candidates.\u201d It is unknown whether this villainy character test was inspired by Washington\u2019s K Street lobbyists.<\/p>\n

Push-button fraud<\/h3>\n

Afghan voting records are a mess, making it much easier to fabricate the \u201cwill of the people.\u201d SIGAR concluded, \u201cAfghanistan\u2019s national voter registry and the voter registration process are exceptionally vulnerable to manipulation<\/a> and mismanagement\u2026 The number of registered voters in Afghanistan is improbably high, given the population size and low turnout shortly after registering, which likely indicates registration fraud. Malpractice and lack of transparency also undermine the credibility of the voter registry.\u201d In this country, controversies erupted in several states prior to the 2020 election over allegations that state voting roles had vast numbers of ineligible or deceased voters listed. Michigan delayed removing 177,000 inactive<\/a> voters from the state\u2019s voting roles until earlier this month and acted only after a lawsuit forced the state\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

Afghan elections have been institutionalized racketeering in part because the rules for elections have always been in flux.<\/strong> SIGAR noted, \u201cOnly one of the country\u2019s election laws has ever been passed by parliament; the rest were presidential decrees<\/a> that were never referred to the parliament for consideration.\u201d The SIGAR report quoted election experts: \u201cThe likelihood of a credible election is inversely proportional to the degree to which the ruling regime directly controls the election management body.\u201d<\/p>\n

America has mostly avoided similar debacles because the Founding Fathers included an Elections Clause<\/a> in the Constitution specifying that the rules for federal elections (president and Congress) \u201cshall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.\u201d Unfortunately, that constitutional provision was trampled last year in many states. Time<\/em> magazine recently revealed \u201cthe secret history of the 2020 election\u201d \u2013 \u201ca well-funded cabal<\/a> of powerful people\u2026 working together behind the scenes to\u2026 change rules and laws\u201d to \u201cfortify\u201d democracy. Democratic Party officials and election commission officials appointed by Democrats scorned state law to rewrite the rules for the 2020 election in several swing states.<\/p>\n

A brief filed with the Supreme Court in December by the state of Texas noted, \u201cMichigan\u2019s Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson, without legislative approval, unilaterally abrogated<\/a> Michigan election statutes related to absentee ballot applications\u201d by sending \u201cunsolicited absentee-voter ballot applications by mail to all 7.7 million registered Michigan voters\u2026 without verifying voter signatures as required\u201d by state law. The impact was compounded when Democratic officials in the state\u2019s most populous county (including Detroit) \u201cmade the policy decision to ignore Michigan\u2019s statutory signature verification requirements for absentee ballots.\u201d Elsewhere, the Wisconsin Elections Commission approved setting up to 500 unmanned ballot drop<\/a> boxes in major Democratic cities in violation of Wisconsin law.<\/p>\n

Politically-appointed judges effectively overturned state law by mandating new election procedures in several states. In Pennsylvania, the state Supreme Court invoked a vaporous phrase<\/a> in the state constitution \u2013 \u201cElections shall be free and equal\u201d \u2013 <\/strong>to justify invalidating a state law that prohibited counting mail-in ballots that arrived after Election Day; the judges even mandated including late ballots arriving with no postmark. A similar provision was struck down on January 27 by a Virginia circuit court overturning the Virginia Board of Elections\u2019 decree permitting counting mail-in ballots that arrived three days<\/a> after the election without a postmark.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the report, SIGAR notes the difficulty of building a viable democracy when elected officials formally receive a license to steal. After noting the hefty bribes that politicians pay to election officials, SIGAR explains: \u201cOne reason candidates may be willing to pay such high prices<\/a> for seats in parliament is to protect ill-gotten fortunes\u2026. By becoming members of parliament, they can gain access to new sources of illicit revenue and immunity from prosecution.\u201d That parliament is the last place on earth to seek a constituency for honest elections.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan also illustrates the perils of computer voting. As one election expert told SIGAR, \u201cThere is no difference between stuffing 100 ballots and pressing a button on an electronic voting machine<\/a> 100 times.\u201d Afghan President Ashraf Ghani decreed that the 2019 election must rely on electronic voting. But SIGAR noted that electronic voting \u201cdid not reduce fraud overall; it just displaced it to other parts of the electoral cycle.\u201d Confidence in Afghan electronic voting was not assisted by the secrecy surrounding the software and equipment. After the 2019 presidential election, Afghanistan\u2019s Independent Election Commission declared that it could not \u201cshare information\u201d about how votes were being reconciled because \u201cthe contractor, Dermalog, controlled that<\/a> process.\u201d SIGAR quoted experts who warned that \u201cbecause governments often control electoral commissions and the procurement of election technology, they are well placed to use it to commit fraud. The introduction of technology can also weaken the ability of political parties and observation groups to detect fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Luckily, no such problems occurred in the U.S. presidential election last year, as confirmed by the recent billion dollar defamation lawsuits filed by Dominion Voting Systems against its critics. But the SIGAR report did cynically note, \u201cThe true purpose of adopting<\/a> election technologies may not be to actually reduce fraud, but to create the illusion of doing so.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the real Afghan lesson is that there is no \u201cguardian angel of democracy.\u201d Politicians permitting citizens to vote does not assure that election results will receive even a whiff of legitimacy<\/strong>. Once fraud or suspicions of fraud reach a certain level, any election winners will be suspected scoundrels. More than 15 years of corrupt elections in Afghanistan have resulted in a central government with little or no popular support or credibility. A U.S. Army colonel who deployed several times to Afghanistan told SIGAR that as early as 2006, the Afghan government had \u201cself-organized into a kleptocracy<\/a>.\u201d Officials who were stealing everything else never hesitated to steal votes. The only reason the Afghan government has not yet been toppled by the Taliban is because of the presence of the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

And is there a lesson from the endless lies that U.S. government officials have told about Afghan democracy? At a confidential 2015 National Security Council meeting, President Obama admitted that the U.S. would never \u201ctransform Afghanistan into a semblance<\/a> of a democracy able to defend itself,\u201d the New York Times <\/em>reported. But that didn\u2019t deter Obama from publicly bragging the following year that U.S. troops and diplomats had helped Afghanistan \u201cestablish<\/a> a democratic government.\u201d Are U.S. government officials more honest when they talk about American democracy than when they praise sham democracies abroad?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Regardless of any Trump tweets to the contrary, U.S. election processes remain far more credible than Afghanistan\u2019s. But last year\u2019s election was the fourth U.S. presidential election since 2000 that was widely perceived as heavily tainted. When the Supreme Court voted last week not to hear cases challenging arbitrary changes in state election procedures, Justice Clarence Thomas dissented, \u201cThe decision to leave election law hidden beneath a shroud of doubt<\/a> is baffling. By doing nothing, we invite further confusion and erosion of voter confidence.\u201d Unfortunately, almost no one is talking of the peril of the \u201cAfghanization\u201d of American democracy.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

American Institute for Economic Research, February 27, 2021 Is the U.S. Going the Way of Afghanistan? James Bovard Acrimony and recriminations continue to swirl around the 2020 presidential election. Three out of four Republicans believe that there was \u201cwidespread fraud\u201d in the election, while Democrats have sought to turn criticisms of the election into a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[42,461,15,451,52,2708,496,82,462,38,1259,2707,2706,708],"class_list":["post-15641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afghanistan","tag-ashraf-ghani","tag-congress","tag-constitution","tag-democracy","tag-dominion-voting-sysems","tag-election","tag-foreign-aid","tag-karzai","tag-obama","tag-sigar","tag-soldiers","tag-stealing","tag-trump"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Afghanization of American Democracy - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Afghanization of American Democracy - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"American Institute for Economic Research, February 27, 2021 Is the U.S. Going the Way of Afghanistan? James Bovard Acrimony and recriminations continue to swirl around the 2020 presidential election. 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James Bovard Acrimony and recriminations continue to swirl around the 2020 presidential election. Three out of four Republicans believe that there was \u201cwidespread fraud\u201d in the election, while Democrats have sought to turn criticisms of the election into a […]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2021-02-27T21:07:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-09-11T20:01:27+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/www.aier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/James-Bovard-wpv_60x60_center_center.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"9 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"The Afghanization of American Democracy","datePublished":"2021-02-27T21:07:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-09-11T20:01:27+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/"},"wordCount":1918,"commentCount":3,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.aier.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/James-Bovard-wpv_60x60_center_center.jpg","keywords":["Afghanistan","ashraf ghani","Congress","Constitution","Democracy","Dominion Voting Sysems","election","foreign aid","karzai","Obama","SIGAR","soldiers","stealing","Trump"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2021\/02\/27\/the-afghanization-of-american-democracy\/","name":"The Afghanization of American Democracy - 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15641"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15649,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15641\/revisions\/15649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}