Despite complaints from opposition candidates, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has declared the recent Afghan election to be fair and valid. Furthermore, the Taliban were unable to disrupt the vote as they had been threatening to do.
The Afghan people have greatly enjoyed their first experience at democracy, and the Afghan election was a resounding success for the formerly war-torn nation. This is the first time that the Afghani people have ever had a free and fair election, and yet they have embraced democracy with open minds and hearts. Afghanistan may yet be a troubled nation, but this election gives hope that some semblance of normality is within reach. The Taliban is gone and discredited. Al-Qaeda fighters have largely abandoned the country, and those groups that do threaten the peace quickly find themselves up against the increasingly effective New Afghan Army and the United States Army and Air Force operating with incredible and precise firepower to keep Afghanistan secure.
I would not have predicted Afghanistan would have gone so well so quickly. In just three years Afghanistan has gone from a place of chaos, repression, and terror, to a state that has had its first free election and the beginning of a new boom in cities like Herat and Kabul. The road to recovery for Afghanistan remains long and difficult, but the people of Afghanistan as well as all the world has reason to celebrate the beginning of the fourth wave of democratization.
