Published: October 31, 2009 04:55 pm      

Other view: Afghanistan and Kerry

Suddenly the quagmire known as Afghanistan is slightly less hopeless. For that, thank the perseverance of the rather unlikely diplomat Sen. John Kerry and the stubborn Afghan President Hamid Karzai's bow to reality -- in that order, too.

Mr. Karzai emerged from five days of high-pressure talks with Mr. Kerry on Tuesday to accept that he now has to compete in a run-off election next month. ...

It's a notable victory, though, for Mr. Kerry. The past five years have had him lose the bitterly close 2004 presidential election after deciding not to formally challenge the contested results in Ohio ... and see the job of secretary of state that he coveted in the Obama administration go instead to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"We may have just averted a crisis of government in Afghanistan. This may be the biggest thing that Kerry has done, other than run for president," says Ralph Carter, a professor at Texas Christian University ...

Albany (New York)

Times Union