The UN’s number two official in Afghanistan, Peter Galbraith, has been fired after a clash with head of mission Kai Eide over how to handle fraud in the recent presidential elections. Galbraith alleges that Eide is covering up massive corruption for reasons of expediency.
My New Atlanticist essay, “Galbraith Fired, Refused to Hide Afghanistan Election Fraud” rounds up the reporting on this story and concludes:
It should be noted that Eide heatedly rejects these charges and that senior UN leaders contend that the role Galbraith envisioned went well beyond the UNAMA mandate. It’s rather clear, however, that in attempting to be “neutral,” Eide and his team have essentially been forced to ignore obvious fraud. That, combined with the fact that the Obama administration has apparently decided that they have no choice but to recognize Karzai as the winner of the election, stolen or not, left Galbraith in an untenable position.
If it were possible for my esteem for the UN to drop further, it would. As it is, it’s just another check in the “Nothing more can be accomplished here” column.
