Omar Samad

A US de­ci­sion to boost troop num­bers in Afghanistan would be wel­come, but there is need for a more ro­bust en­gage­ment.

There is a dire need for states­man­ship, a vi­sion­ary and hon­est lead­er­ship, and a bal­anced and in­clu­sive part­ner­ship.

Afghans need re­as­sur­ance that the gains of the past 14 years won’t be ne­go­ti­at­ed away as part of re­gion­al deal-mak­ing.

Two men will have to nav­i­gate Afghanistan out of rough wa­ters and onto calmer shores.

As both con­tenders for the pres­i­den­cy see the end of the elec­toral de­ba­cle ap­proach­ing, they’ve draw

Po­lit­i­cal egos and ma­nip­u­la­tive tac­tics must be put aside and both camps should aim for a col­lab­o­ra­tive out­come.

If Afghans fail to avoid po­lit­i­cal po­lar­i­sa­tion and eth­nic chau­vin­ism, it will im­per­il the post-2014 tran­si­tion process.

Did Oba­ma rain on the Afghan pa­rade or are there back-chan­nel im­per­a­tives that trumped all oth­er con­sid­er­a­tions?

Sec­ond round or not, there are only a few days left to reach a cred­i­ble elec­toral out­come ac­cept­able to most Afghans.

Some pre­fer a run-off to seek a clear­er man­date, oth­ers see a pro­longed race as po­lar­is­ing and desta­bil­is­ing.