In more than eight years as a budding new democracy, violence and corruption in Afghanistan have worsened. Its experiment in parliamentary politics has led to unsavoury horse-trading that resembles nothing of the democratic vision advocated by Western leaders. In order to secure electoral support, President Karzai allied himself with powerful figures widely seen as being linked to oppression, corruption and drug trafficking. His government also introduced laws to appease religious hardliners, including one that allows men to starve their wives if they refuse to have sex and another that bans a Muslim from changing religion.

An excerpt from my column in the Evening Standard October 22nd 2009   Click here: The Road to Peace Cannot be Built by Democracy Alone

Click here: Democracy Kills