GHAZNI, Afghanistan — President Barack Obama's special envoy said Friday that Afghanistan's upcoming presidential contest will be imperfect, but the country cannot be held to a democratic standard that even the U.S. struggles to achieve.
The U.S. military, meanwhile, reported two more American service members died in combat, adding to what has already been the deadliest month for U.S. and international forces since they invaded the country eight years ago. A third soldier was reported killed in a clash Friday in eastern Afghanistan but officials would not disclose the nationality pending notification of kin.
Richard Holbrooke's trip to this central Afghan province coincided with President Hamid Karzai's first election rally in Kabul ahead of the Aug. 20 ballot. Karzai praised the role of foreign troops but promised that rules governing their presence will change if he wins re-election.
"Elections here will be imperfect," Holbrooke said between briefings at a military base run by Polish and U.S. troops. "But I am an American who lived through an imperfect election eight years ago. I am not going to hold Afghanistan to standards which even the United States does not achieve."
"What we want is an election that reflects the legitimate will of the Afghan people and whoever wins the international community will support," he added.
With insurgency threatening large areas of the country, there are fears that not enough voters will participate in the polls for the results to be accepted — especially among the Pashtuns, the dominant ethnic group that forms the majority of the Taliban. Karzai is a Pashtun.
At the rally, Karzai shook hands and promised supporters he would hold NATO and U.S. troops accountable for actions that harm or ignore the rights of Afghan citizens, including killing civilians, raiding private homes and detaining people without charge.
Karzai has done little campaigning in the run up to the elections but is leading a crowded field of 41 candidates. He has sent representatives to most campaign events and bowed out of a televised debate Thursday with his two closest competitors. The other two candidates went on with the debate next to his empty podium.
During the Friday rally, about 3,000 people — men wearing turbans and vests and some women in headscarves — crammed into an assembly tent in western Kabul to hear Karzai.
The president said there had been many improvements in Afghanistan during his rule, noting that there are more roads, hospitals and schools than when he came to power eight years ago.
He said that if he is re-elected, he will revisit Afghanistan's agreement with international forces that are working to restore peace in the country to make sure they respect the rights of Afghan citizens. Increasing civilian casualties, house raids and detentions have caused too much friction between groups that are working toward a common goal, he said.
"I want to remove the fear between us and the international troops," he said.
Too often, he said, international troops make decisions without consulting the Afghan government.
"It should be clear who is the owner of the house and who is the guest," he said. The appeal prompted shouts and clapping throughout the crowd.
That theme was hammered home Thursday by Karzai's two leading competitors during the television debate.
Former Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and ex-Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani both cited civilian casualties, searching private homes without permission and arresting people without cause as major reasons for opposition to the presence of American and other international forces.
The two U.S. troops died in an explosion in southern Afghanistan, according to a U.S. military spokesman Lt. Robert Carr. No other details were released. Their deaths raised to at least 37 the number of U.S. service members to die in the Afghan war in July.
Roadside bombs now account for about two-thirds of the hostile-fire deaths suffered by Western forces in Afghanistan. On Friday, the British Ministry of Defense announced it was sending 125 additional troops to its 9,000-strong force here, including a company of explosives experts to counter the threat of roadside bombs.
The rising deaths have raised doubts among the U.S.-led coalition about the conduct of the war, forcing some governments to defend publicly their commitments at a time when the U.S. is shifting resources to Afghanistan from Iraq.
In Ghazni, Holbrooke said that the most difficult part of his assignment was to "make sure that the European and the American publics understand how important it is" to remain in Afghanistan.
"This is not Iraq. This is not Vietnam. This is a nation that is directly related to the attacks of 9/11," Holbrooke said, referring to al-Qaida's attacks in New York and Washington on Sept. 11, 2001.
Holbrooke was accompanied by Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and a number of Kabul-based European diplomats. Holbrooke said the joint visit showed "that the European Union and the U.S. are indispensable allies to each other."
Also Friday, Sweden's military reported that Swedish and Finnish soldiers killed three insurgents in a clash in the north.
The military says the fighting started late Thursday when a Swedish unit was attacked near Mazar-e-Sharif. Swedish and Finnish soldiers were called to assist and exchanged fire with insurgents throughout the night. No international troops were wounded.
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