{"id":22827,"date":"2026-07-24T09:57:44","date_gmt":"2026-07-24T13:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=22827"},"modified":"2026-07-24T10:22:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:22:11","slug":"afghan-lessons-for-american-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/24\/afghan-lessons-for-american-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan Lessons for American Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
\"\"<\/a>

Collage via Wikipedia<\/p><\/div>\r\n

Afghan Lessons for American Democracy<\/strong><\/a><\/h2>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

by James Bovard\"\"<\/a><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

After Al Qaeda terrorists used Afghanistan for training bases for the 9\/11 attacks, the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan and quickly routed the Taliban government. President George W. Bush boasted that U.S. troops brought freedom and democracy to Afghanistan. But rather than democracy, the United States brought Hamid Karzai, an oil pi<\/strong>peline lobbyist who was expected to slavishly follow U.S. orders.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u201cDemocracy\u201d under Karzai<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Shortly after he was ensconced into power, Karzai pledged to an American audience that fighting corruption would be among his highest goals. An election was held to legitimize his power in 2004, including \u201cget out the vote\u201d drives threatening to burn people\u2019s houses down unless they voted for Karzai. All 15 of the opposing candidates denounced the fraud-ridden election, but that did nothing to deter Bush from taking multiple victory laps for bringing democracy to Afghanistan.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Karzai\u2019s five-year term saw the revival of the Taliban and widespread Afghan disgust at a government permeated by corruption<\/strong>. In

When Obama spoke to the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in

A few weeks later, Peter Galbraith, one of the top United Nations officials in Afghanistan, was fired after he publicly estimated that a third of Karzai\u2019s votes were bogus. Galbraith declared, \u201cNo amount of spin can obscure the fact that we spent upwards of $200 million on an election that has been a total fiasco.\u201d He lamented that \u201cthe fraud has handed the Taliban its greatest strategic victory in eight years of fighting the United States and its Afghan partners.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Rampant electoral fraud<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The United Nations, which helped oversee the election, eventually disqualified a million votes (mostly for Karzai). This meant that Karzai had less than a majority and that Afghan law required a runoff election with the second-place finisher, Abdullah Abdullah. On

Having a second round of voting seemed akin to catching a really dumb bank robber in the act \u2014 and then, instead of charging him, giving him another chance to rob the same bank.<\/strong> Karzai prepared for the runoff by firing all the members of the Independent Election Board and stacking it with his cronies. Abdullah recognized the second round would be a sham and withdrew from the runoff. The Obama administration responded by redefining success \u2014 or at least democracy. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs declared: \u201cPresident Karzai has been declared the winner of the Afghan elections and will head the next government of Afghanistan, and so obviously he is the legitimate leader of the country.\u201d But Saddam Hussein could have invoked the same standard to claim to be the legitimate leader of Iraq, since he won several rigged elections.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

A few weeks later, Obama traveled to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he announced plans to send more troops to Afghanistan. Obama boasted, \u201cIn Afghanistan, we and our allies prevented the Taliban from stopping a presidential election, and \u2014 although it was marred by fraud \u2014that election produced a government that is consistent with Afghanistan\u2019s laws and constitution.\u201d But there was nothing in the Afghan laws entitling incumbents to steal elections.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Sham democracy and corruption\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The \u201cdemocracy\u201d that the U.S. military was bestowing on Afghanistan was always a sham. Shortly after Obama\u2019s West Point speech, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, sent in troops to inflict democracy on a village named Marja in southern Afghanistan. Shortly before the assault began, McChrystal announced: \u201cWe\u2019ve got a government in a box, ready to roll in.\u201d In the same way that the U.S. government plopped Karzai into Afghanistan in 2002 as its \u201cdemocratic\u201d leader, the U.S. military brought in Afghan emigre Abdul Zahir to serve as Marja\u2019s new governor. The Washington Post<\/em> noted that Zahir was touted as \u201ca respected elder from the Alozai tribe, a landowner who lived in Marja in his youth…. U.S. Marines and civilian advisers in Marja have given him money and protection in an attempt to persuade a wary population to follow him.\u201d Zahir\u2019s accession hit a bump after it leaked out that he had spent four years in prison for attempting to murder his stepson while living in Germany. The Washington Post <\/em>noted: \u201cU.S. officials in Afghanistan said Zahir\u2019s criminal conviction did not undermine their confidence in his ability to govern.\u201d Zahir never received popular support and was murdered at a local meeting the following year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Afghan government continued corrupt and inept. At Afghanistan\u2019s premier military hospital, some wounded Afghan soldiers starved to death because they could not afford to bribe the hospital staff for food. Much of the Afghan army was practically bootless because of crooked contracts that delivered shoddy footwear that fell apart the first time soldiers wore them.\u00a0 The Taliban advanced further with each year of Karzai\u2019s second term.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Self-government in Afghanistan was defined down to the right officials pocketing the right bribes from U.S. government henchmen<\/strong>. In

The bogus 2014 election<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

More than 1,500 U.S. soldiers were killed seeking to stabilize Afghanistan between its 2009 and 2014 presidential electi<\/strong>ons, the latter in which Karzai was term-limited from running in again. But the soldiers\u2019 sacrifice was in vain, at least as far as Afghanistan advancing toward democracy. Eight million ballots were tallied in the 2014 election \u2014 far more than election observers had expected. Abdullah Abdullah, who had probably won the 2009 election, won the first round by a large margin. But in the runoff, Ashraf Ghani, a former World Bank official and Karzai\u2019s favorite, came up with a deluge of new votes and was declared the winner.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The Abdullah campaign released recordings of phone calls from the Karzai-appointed chief of the Independent Election Commission coaching local officials on how to fabricate vast numbers of ballots for Ghani. Angry crowds of protestors in Kabul chanted \u201cDeath to the Independent Election Commission!\u201d Almost 400,000 votes came from polling stations \u201cthat reported that 100 percent of the votes went just one way.\u201d The New York Times <\/em>noted of the election dispute: \u201cAfter years of Western aid spent building it, the Afghan state is suddenly at risk of collapsing just as American troops are leaving.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The U.S. government again gave its blessings to a sham election. Despite \u201cserious allegations of extensive fraud,\u201d the State Department decreed that \u201cthe final outcome of the election process is legitimate and the results will be transparent.\u201d The only reason the Obama administration considered the new government \u201clegitimate\u201d is that it quickly cut a deal to extend the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan<\/strong>. According to Washington scorekeepers, being occupied by a benevolent foreign army is the ultimate proof that politicians are devoted to the people they rule. 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 appointments.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

In his 2015 State of the Union address, Obama hailed the role of the U.S. military in Afghanistan, praising \u201cour troops\u2019 sacrifice by supporting that country\u2019s first democratic transition.\u201d Behind closed doors, however, D.C. poohbahs admitted their Afghan charade. At a confidential 2015 National Security Council meeting, according to the New York Times<\/em>, Obama admitted that the United States would never \u201ctransform Afghanistan into a semblance of a democracy able to defend itself.\u201d But that didn\u2019t<\/strong> deter Obama from publicly bragging the following year that U.S. troops and diplomats had helped Afghanistan \u201cestablish a democratic government.\u201d At a State Department conference, Obama invoked the \u201chistoric democratic transition in Afghanistan\u201d as one of Secretary of State John Kerry\u2019s great achievements. At some point during the Obama presidency, \u201cdemocratic transition\u201d became \u201cclose enough for government work\u201d to democracy.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Afghan democracy was a bigger fraud than almost anyone wanted in D.C. would admit. I<\/strong>n

A lucrative system<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Afghan democracy was doomed because elected officials received a license to steal.<\/strong> After noting the hefty bribes that politicians pay to election officials, SIGAR explained: \u201cOne reason candidates may be willing to pay such high prices for seats in parliament is to protect ill-gotten fortunes…. By becoming members of parliament, they can gain access to new sources of illicit revenue and immunity from prosecution.\u201d The New York Times<\/em> noted as early as 2010: \u201cMany well-heeled Afghan independent candidates are looking to buy their way into the lucrative sinecure of a seat in Parliament. That not only comes with a healthy salary \u2014 about $2,200 a month gross \u2014 but tremendous opportunities for graft.\u201d That political system \u2014 created with the help of busloads of well-paid U.S. consultants \u2014 helped make Afghanistan one of the most corrupt nations on earth. 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.\u201d Officials who were stealing everything else never hesitated to steal votes.<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Most Americans who watched the speedy collapse of the Afghan government in the summer of 2021 did not recognize how that debacle also vivified the failure of American democrac<\/strong>y. In 2019, SIGAR chief John Sopko summarized the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan: \u201cThe American people have constantly been lied to.\u201d<\/strong> The Washington Post <\/em>in 2019 reported that former U.S. government officials revealed \u201cexplicit and sustained efforts by the U.S. government to deliberately mislead the public…. They said it was common at military headquarters in Kabul \u2014 and at the White House \u2014 to distort statistics to make it appear the United States was winning the war when that was not the case.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Four different U.S. presidents colluded to delude American taxpayers and American soldiers about the success of bringing democracy to Afghanistan. Is there any reason to presume that our nation\u2019s most powerful politicians are more honest about American democracy than they were about Afghan democracy?<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

James Bovard is a policy advisor to The Future of Freedom Foundation and is the author of the ebook <\/em>Freedom Frauds: Hard Lessons in American Liberty<\/a>, published by FFF, his new book,<\/em> Last Rights: The Death of American Liberty, and nine other books.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

——————————-<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Afghan Lessons for American Democracy by James Bovard After Al Qaeda terrorists used Afghanistan for training bases for the 9\/11 attacks, the U.S. military invaded Afghanistan and quickly routed the Taliban government. President George W. Bush boasted that U.S. troops brought freedom and democracy to Afghanistan. But rather than democracy, the United States brought Hamid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":23002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[42,52,137,462,2244,27,1256,38,1259,1260,115,2694,833],"class_list":["post-22827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-afghanistan","tag-democracy","tag-george-w-bush","tag-karzai","tag-kleptocracy","tag-lying","tag-new-york-times","tag-obama","tag-sigar","tag-sopko","tag-united-nations","tag-vote-fraud","tag-washington-post"],"yoast_head":"\nAfghan Lessons for American Democracy - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In Afghanistan, the U.S. government empowered a political class that turned democracy into a sham. 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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. 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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. 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