the_taliban_shuffle_-_kim_barker

my shoes.
But I still wanted to see the election, a dierent kind of tragedy. On
Election Day, Paula and I drove to various polling stations. Most were
quiet, although I could hardly blame Afghans. Why risk voting when no
candidate seemed particularly inspiring, when Karzai’s victory seemed
assured? Compared to the rst presidential election ve years earlier,
when people had lined up for hours for the privilege of voting, this day
was just depressing. At one point, we hurried to a report of a shoot-out.
The cops had shot one alleged terrorist—another may have escaped. We
walked past the pickup truck with the terrorist’s body slung in the back
like a side of beef and over to the crumbling building where police still
searched for evidence. More and more kids and young men surrounded
us, more and more journalists showed up, until nally, I decided I’d
feel safer in the car. Soon after, I heard shouting and looked up—Paula
was sprinting toward the car, anked by four other hung
photographers. A gaggle of police ran behind them. I popped the back
door open—photographers and cameras dove inside. Then we locked
the doors. The police surrounded us, brandishing their guns. Apparently
they had been told to seize all the cameras of the photographers and
maybe the photographers themselves—the Afghan government had
earlier banned publicity of Election Day attacks in another dramatic
victory for freedom of speech here.
“They’re going to kill us!” one photographer shouted.
“Drive, just drive!” another screamed.
They were new. I felt strangely calm. I knew Afghanistan’s nest
would never shoot. If they did, they’d never hit us. Paula, who had
jumped in the passenger side of the car, stretched her foot across to the
driver’s side and punched the gas. Once the car hopped forward, the
police scattered. We roared down the road.
That was enough excitement for my day. Within minutes of the polls
closing, Karzai’s people claimed victory. It was soon clear why. The
fraud had been epic, the kind of fraud that would make dead voters in
Chicago sit up and applaud. Ultimately as many as one in three votes
would be deemed suspect. Karzai’s supporters would bear the most of
the blame.
The fallout would smother and choke everything anyone was trying
to do here. Karzai would eventually be declared the winner. But if this