Karzai agrees to runoff, Obama loses excuse of decision on troop request

NY Times:

Under heavy international pressure, President Hamid Karzai conceded Tuesday that he fell short of a first-round victory in the nation’s disputed presidential election, and agreed to hold a runoff election with his top challenger on Nov. 7.

Flanked at a news conference in Kabul by Senator John Kerry, the head of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Kai Eide, the top United Nations official in Afghanistan, Mr. Karzai said he would accept the findings of an international audit that stripped him of nearly one third of his votes in the first round, leaving him below the 50 percent threshold that would have allowed him to avoid a runoff and declare victory over his main rival, Abdullah Abdullah.

“I call upon this country to take this as an opportunity to move this country forward and participate in this new round of elections,” he said according to the English translation of his remarks, adding that he was grateful to the international community for its help.

Mr. Karzai called for continued international assistance in securing the country for the next round of voting. He did not express regret about the widespread fraud that a joint Afghan-international audit committee ruled Monday had occurred among the ballots marked in his name.

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Karzai really had no other option. If he refused the runoff, he would have lost international support and there would have been internal and external questions about his legitimacy. He also probably figures he will win the runoff anyway.

But with the agreement the administration has lost its latest excuse for coming to a decision on Gen. McCrystal's request for more troops. Perhaps this excuse was just an attempt to put leverage on Karzai. If so, it worked, but now is the time to stop the dithering and get on with providing the military the resources they need to defeat the enemy.