It seems that the Taliban may be winning one battle in the presidential election taking place in Afghanistan right now. Voter turnout in the southern part of the country seems to be extremely low. The Taliban has campaigned very hard to get people in that part of the country not to vote while US and NATO forces have been trying to drive the Taliban out of the Southern cities leading up to the election. They wanted to drive them out of the cities to help to reduce the number of threats against civilians. Incumbent president Hamid Karzai gets the bulk of his support from the Southern region.

The Taliban have threatened civilians not to vote in these areas because President Karzai has been extremely supportive and sympathetic to the United States.

President Karzai's rival "Abdullah Abdullah" gets his major support from voters in the Northern part of the country where voter turnout has been heavy. If President Karzai does not win the election we may see more government intervention in Operation Enduring Freedom with added limitations, and restrictions. This definitely would not be good news to my Operation Enduring Freedom military ring customers.