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Progress in Afghanistan

August 25, 2009 | By Amanda Reinecker

Last Thursday, war-torn Afghanistan held a presidential election. Its outcome will weigh heavily on America's efforts to defeat the Taliban terrorists.

Although the results remain unknown, Heritage experts James Phillips and Lisa Curtis applauded the electoral process and respectable voter turnout as a significant "blow to the Taliban, since it demonstrates that Afghans support the democratic process and not the Taliban's version of harsh Islamist rule."

Leading up to the elections, Taliban terrorists ran a fierce propaganda campaign, threatening to dismember and disfigure voters. And while 135 violent incidents claimed at least 26 lives and dampened turnout somewhat, "voter turnout appears to have been respectable."

Incumbent President Hamid Karzai is running neck-and-neck with challenger Abdullah Abdullah after early vote tallies. If neither garners 50 percent of the vote, the candidates will go before voters again in a runoff election. In addition to underscoring a desire to confront the fear-mongering and corruption of the Taliban, Heritage experts believe the closeness of this election could help "bolster Afghans' faith in the democratic process by demonstrating it was a genuinely competitive campaign."

No matter who wins, however, "the real test will be the extent to which Afghan leaders can effectively cooperate after the elections to build a more stable and prosperous Afghanistan," writes Heritage Middle East expert Jim Phillips in The Foundry.

America's efforts in the region will largely depend on cohesion among a legitimately elected Afghan leadership. "America will not be able to stabilize Afghanistan and ensure it does not again turn into a terrorist safe haven," Phillips and Curtis write in a separate analysis, "unless it has an Afghan government partner with credibility among the people."

» Heritage's Lindsey Shaw explains how beating the militants in Pakistan is key to winning in Afghanistan.

Last week's election was certainly "a step in the right direction." But as Heritage Vice President Kim Holmes explains, this step must be followed by "devising a workable strategy on Afghanistan and sticking to it…for as long as necessary and no matter the political fallout."

Reality-checking the Left on health care

The White House and its Congressional allies have been playing defense on their plan to nationalize America's health care system. Some on the Left have taken to describing criticisms of the proposal as "myths" or "phony claims"—even if these criticisms are accurate.

Heritage's Conn Carroll rounds up a few of the completely accurate "myths" on Heritage's blog, the Foundry:

  • Obamacare will provide health benefits to illegal immigrants. True.
  • Obamacare will lead to a government takeover of the health care system. True.
  • Obamacare will use taxpayer dollars to pay for women to have abortions. True.
  • Obamacare will allow government to ration health care. True.

Get all the details and tell us what you think.

Other Heritage work of note

  • Town hall attendees "should be congratulated as the first line of defense against Obamacare," writes Heritage Senate Relations expert Brian Darling. These Americans recognize that while reform of the health care system is critical, government micromanagement is not the answer. Darling commends the town hall patriots and encourages them to "keep it up... You're serving as effective agents of change."
  • As the debate on US health care reform mounts, many proponents of a "public option" praise Britain's National Health Service (NHS) -- essentially a single-payer system where the government pays for all care -- as an efficient and successful model. Heritage scholar Ted Bromund points out, however, that the British system simply isn't delivering despite massive spending. "By moving the U.S. towards a single-payer system under the guise of a public option, Obama is heading in the direction of the British system, at precisely the moment when that system, after an unprecedented injection of taxpayer money has failed to deliver the promised results."
  • The current administration is "making a mockery of candidate Obama's campaign pledge not to neglect missile defense," Heritage national security expert James Carafano argues in The Washington Examiner. The current defense authorization bill outlines drastic cuts to missile defense programs that have been tested, proven and almost entirely paid for by taxpayers in exchange for non-existent, more expensive and unproven technology, which the president incorrectly explains as "pragmatic and cost-effective."
  • The world has made great progress against communism and oppressive regimes since 1959, when President Dwight Eisenhower proclaimed the third week of July "Captive Nations Week." However, "many peoples around the world [still] face the evils of oppression, communist and otherwise," writes Heritage international relations expert Helle Dale. While the number of openly communist countries has shrunk to five – China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam and Laos – many countries remain subject to tyrannical regimes, such as in Iran, Libya and Burma. This is an international challenge that must be confronted head on, and one that "the United States, as the world's freest and most powerful nation, must continue to meet."

In other news

  • For the first time since 1975, millions of seniors may receive Social Security checks with no cost of living increase. By law, the check amount cannot decrease, though the amounts will not increase since inflation has been so low.  
  • The White House announced Friday that it expects a higher deficit and unemployment rates than previously predicted. Unemployment is expected to spike to 10 percent this year, and the deficit for next year is forecast at a whopping $1.5 trillion, or about $5,000 for every American.
  • The long battle over the CIA's interrogation practices intensified when a classified report was released Monday detailing the agency's secret interrogation program and "enhanced interrogation techniques." As Attorney General Eric Holder gears up for criminal prosecution of CIA interrogators, former Vice President Dick Cheney is defending the practices as protecting many lives.

Coming up at Heritage

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Amanda Reinecker is a writer for MyHeritage.org—a website for members and supporters of The Heritage Foundation. Nathaniel Ward, the Editor of MyHeritage.org, contributed to this report.