Mindy Belz
Mindy Belz is the editor of WORLD and has covered war in Bosnia, Sudan and Iraq as well as serving as a writer for the magazine for over 20 years.

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Election Day that wasn't

Karzai intransigence and international lack of resolve doom prospects for political revival | by Mindy Belz

When UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon traveled to Kabul last week to pay tribute to UN staff killed in a Taliban attack Oct. 28, he said the UN workers "came to Afghanistan armed not with guns or bullets. They came with a more powerful weapon—hope." In hindsight, the UN workers might wish they'd packed the guns and bullets, too. As Winston Churchill liked to say, "If you wish peace, then prepare for war."

The Taliban's successful penetration of downtown Kabul to stage the attack is a central tableau in the disintegrating political and military scene in Afghanistan. Militants successfully sealed off a major road in the capital and shot their way past security before launching grenades inside the guesthouse compound and firing at fleeing workers. At the same time they launched rocket attacks at a hotel hosting foreigners and at the presidential palace. Five UN officials were killed in the attack and nine were wounded. One worker, an American, has remained missing.

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