Bruce Riedel, Author of The Search For Al Qaeda,speaks with NewsHour’s Margaret Warner at the Brookings Institution.The Brookings Senior Fellow chaired the inter agency review that led tothe first Obama Afghanistan strategy. In light of voter fraud, Riedelencourages a runoff. “On the whole, it is a good thing,” he said. But the Afghanistan-Pakistan expert cautions that a runoff will only be effective if it can restore legitimacy to the process.
Diwali is a significant holiday in religious traditions of Hinduism,Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, and U.S. President Obama used theoccasion to continue his personal engagement in U.S. public diplomacy, which hasbeen marked by a number of foreign speeches, as well as several similarvideo messages. Diwali is “a time when members of some of the world’s great faithscelebrate the triumph of good over evil,” Obama said. He also said itis a time “when we remember those who are less fortunate. Those who maynot be eating as heartily or celebrating as festively; those who don’tenjoy the same rights to speak and worship freely, [...]
NewsHour’s Margaret Warner interviews former Afghan presidential candidate, Ashraf Ghani. Ghani explains the fears of the average Afghan that without a clear government in place, widespread fractionalized violence will return throughout the country. He says of his fellow countrymen, “They’d rather have a bad government then no government at all.”
