[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 21, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Page S10288]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                HISTORIC AFGHAN PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS

  Mr. McCONNELL. Madam President, I rise to share great news with all 
of our colleagues. Last Sunday, an estimated 6 million people in 
Afghanistan voted in that country's historic first legislative election 
in over three decades. This is a tremendous achievement for the 
citizens of Afghanistan, for the people of the broader Middle East, and 
for obviously the United States because of America's interest in seeing 
peace and democracy flourish around the world. And, of course, it is a 
victory in the war on terror.
  Afghans turned out, despite threats of violence, and despite 
unfamiliarity with the parliamentary system, to vote in great numbers 
for a 249-member lower parliamentary house and the members of 34 
provincial councils. Those councils, along with President Hamid Karzai, 
will help select the 51 members of the upper parliamentary house, and 
the Afghan Parliament will convene for the first time this coming 
December.
  Four years ago, the ruthless Taliban regime ruled Afghanistan with an 
unyielding, murderous intolerance, and they laid down that country's 
welcome mat to terrorists. Al-Qaida called the Afghan deserts their 
home, and they plotted the deaths of Americans. Well, no more. Today a 
democratically elected President and Parliament chart a new course for 
that country.
  The turnout rate in this historic parliamentary election is estimated 
to exceed the typical turnout rate in our own country for our so-called 
off-year congressional elections, that is, when there is no 
Presidential election on the ballot. This follows the remarkable trend 
set last October when Afghanistan elected Hamid Karzai in its first 
Presidential election ever, also with a higher turnout rate than we had 
in this country a month later. I do not think Americans have to worry 
about terrorist threats or deadly bombing attacks on their way to the 
polls, but obviously the people in Afghanistan were certainly concerned 
that that might happen.
  In fact, though there was some scattered violence, the Afghan police 
and army did an excellent job on the whole of securing the polls and 
thwarting these would-be terrorists. For instance, the police defused a 
large cache of explosives in Mazar-i-Sharif. In the western town of 
Helmand, an attack on a polling station ended with the deaths of two 
men suspected to be remnant Taliban members. Police even caught two 
terrorists attempting to smuggle explosives hidden in a pen into a 
polling station.
  Turnout among women was high as well. We do not have the official 
results yet, but President Karzai claims it should account for about 40 
to 60 percent of the total turnout. This is Afghanistan we are talking 
about. Forty to 60 percent of the total turnout in the legislative 
elections were women. This Afghan election is a huge success story, 
despite the deafening silence about it in the mainstream media. I 
continue to be disappointed at the media's refusal to cover the good 
news taking place in the broader Middle East.
  I would like to read the beginning of a commendable editorial from 
the September 19, 2005, edition of the Wall Street Journal. I ask 
unanimous consent to have the entirety of that article printed in the 
Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Wall Street Journal, Sept. 19, 2005]

                           The Afghan Success

       Who would have thought that free and successful elections 
     in Afghanistan would so quickly become a non-story? We sure 
     didn't, but that seems to be the case judging from the 
     paucity of news coverage of yesterday's historic Afghan vote 
     for a national parliament and provincial assemblies. Success 
     is apparently boring.
       Taliban terrorists were unable to fulfill their pledge to 
     disrupt the vote, not that they didn't try. They killed five 
     candidates and four election workers leading up to the 
     election, and yesterday another 15 people died in violence, 
     including a Frenchman who was part of the international force 
     helping to provide security. Despite such dangers, turnout 
     was said to be heavy, though perhaps not up to the eight 
     million who voted in last October's presidential election.
       The vote was also another milestone for Afghan women, with 
     580-some female candidates, or 10% of the total. The Taliban 
     had threatened female candidates in particular, much as they 
     had turned women into second-class citizens during their time 
     in power. For a country that hadn't chosen a legislature in 
     decades, and was thought too benighted to support democracy 
     by many Western sages, this is worth celebrating.
       About 20,000 U.S. soldiers remain on the ground in the 
     country, providing security while Afghan police and army 
     forces continue to build. American and NATO forces will need 
     to be there for some time, notably special forces who can 
     pursue Taliban fighters who use terrorist tactics. But a 
     legitimate new legislature will make it that much harder for 
     the Taliban and its foreign recruits to find popular sympathy 
     or sanctuary.
       It's worth recalling how perilous for U.S. interests this 
     comer of Southwest Asia was only four years ago. With the 
     Taliban running Afghanistan, and Pakistan intelligence 
     helping them, an Islamist takeover in Islamabad was not out 
     of the question. But now with the Taliban routed and Hamid 
     Karzai governing in Kabul, the region is no longer an al 
     Qaeda sanctuary. This is one battle in the war on terror that 
     we're clearly winning.

  Mr. McCONNELL. Here is how it begins:

       Who would have thought that free and successful elections 
     in Afghanistan would so quickly become a non-story? We sure 
     didn't, but that seems to be the case judging from the 
     paucity of news coverage of yesterday's historic Afghan vote 
     for a national parliament and provincial assemblies. Success 
     is apparently boring.

  I think they must teach them in journalism school that only bad news 
is news. Let me repeat that last part. As President Bush and our armed 
forces continue to defend and spread freedom in the broader Middle 
East, if there is bad news, setbacks or casualties to report, the 
mainstream media will gladly hold the front page. But reporting success 
is apparently boring. Well, tell that to any one of the millions who 
cast their cherished ballot last Sunday.
  I think the American people deserve to know the progress we are 
making in expanding freedom in countries that until now have known only 
terror. That is among one of the best ways of ensuring that terror does 
not strike our shores again, as it did on September 11, 2001. But it 
appears that the mainstream media is not that interested in good news. 
There is only one way to report this story: as a victory in the war on 
terror.
  I ask all of our colleagues to join me in congratulating the Afghan 
people for taking this giant step toward becoming a free democratic 
state, justly governed under the rule of law. I ask them to join me in 
pledging the full support of the United States as Afghanistan continues 
to root out the last vestiges of its extremist terrorist element and 
moves forward into its democratic future. And I ask them to join me in 
declaring that whatever the final outcome of the elections, the true 
winners are the Afghan people, and the people of the region who can 
look to the Afghan exercise in democracy this past weekend as a model 
of success.




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