Comment Monbiot says population growth won't destroy the planet page 19
Nepal diary
Former king is clear
winner in competition
for blessings page 9
Review
Few regrets as
party veterans
reflect on
60 years
of the
People's
Republic
page 25
Le Monde
The judge from Paris
who `went native' in
New Caledonia page 28
Culture
The Istanbul Biennial
looks forward to the end
of the world page 34
Books
How Americans must
take their foot off the
gas page 36
Shortcuts
Ben Nevis is covered in
banana skins page 46
will he heed McChrystal and escalate,
will he pursue a widening, indefinite
war, as panicky Democrats see it?
Sacked UN diplomat Peter Gal-
braith's weekend broadside alleging
the organisation's complicity in elec-
toral fraud is but the latest of many
considerations pushing Obama to-
wards some variation of the down-
sizing option. Karzai's manipulation
Embattled Obama faces
Afghan policy choice
Problems pile up ... President Barack Obama Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
Global views on world events | guardianweekly.co.uk | 9-15 October 2009
Anger at pullback on
US climate change bill
President soft-pedals
healthcare reform
Simon Tisdall
John Vidal
Guardian reporters
Imagine the scene aboard Air Force
One, the US president's plane, on the
runway in Copenhagen last Friday.
Barack Obama is exhausted, having
flown the Atlantic overnight to back
Chicago's bid for the 2016 Olympics.
Heisalsofeelinghumiliated,sincehis
efforts on behalf of his adopted home
town have been roundly spurned.
Thewearypresidentknowsheisre-
turning to a White House under siege.
Healthcare, the economy, spiralling
unemployment and a host of other
knotty issues are blighting a first term
thatbeganwithsomuchpromise.The
lastthingObamawantstotalkaboutis
America's losing war in Afghanistan.
Enter General Stanley McChrystal,
the earnest US and Nato commander
inAfghanistan.Thegeneralispressing
hard for a surge of up to 40,000 extra
US troops to stave off what he warns
couldbeastrategicdisaster.Thecalcu-
lations of Obama's advisers are more
political. They know their boss has to
get Afghanistan right and time is not
on his side.
The result? Obama has 25 minutes
with McChrystal. They chew over Af-
ghan policy scenarios, as they will do
in more meetings over the next two
or three weeks. This root-and-branch
reviewwilldeterminenotonlythefu-
tureofUSmilitaryoperationsbutmay
also seal the fate of President Hamid
Karzai's fraud-tainted government.
Thequestionis:willObamapullthe
plug, will he downgrade the US com-
mitment,willhecutandrun,ashawk-
ish Republicans will interpret it? Or
of the vote had handed the Taliban
its "greatest strategic victory in eight
years", Galbraith said. He alleged that
almost one in three of the votes cast
for Karzai were fraudulent.
Last weekend's news that another
eight US servicemen have died in Af-
ghanistan'sbloodiestyearsofar;polls
showingplummetingpublicsup-
port � only 26% believe more US
2
Czech Rep KC95 Denmark DK24 *Republic of
Ireland 1.95 Hungary HUF520 *Malta 1.95
Norway NK30 *Romania 5.50 Saudi Arabia
R6.50 Sweden SK35 Switzerland SF6.00
9 7 7 0 9 5 8 9 9 9 1 4 5
4 1
IncorporatingmaterialfromtheObserver,
LeMondeandtheWashingtonPost
Vol 181 No 17 �1.75 3.50* Exclusions apply

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