Realist of the Month: Peter Galbraith

Ex-UN official Peter Galbraith has revealed how little the West is learning about propaganda in conflict zones and their domestic audiences. Interviews were just the beginning - now he's fully disclosed the attempts to silence him in an op-ed to the Washington Post.

His claim that up to 30% of Hamid Karzai's votes could be fraudulent is astounding, which if true would reduce him from 54% to abround 38%. Karzai was in trouble even with 54%, but if 35-40% is his true power base then he's bringing President Obama into even deeper trouble. The level of suppression surrounding the fraud is staggering and given how closely involved American officials are with these UN officials, it's hard to believe they aren't complicit. President Obama seems more concerned with political expediency than the will of the Afghan people. A good portion are going to reject Karzai without a credible runoff.

Galbraith's very firing makes no sense either. Nobody expected him to go public? Instead of listening to his findings and working with him, the UN booted him off the team and expected him to go back to Vermont - obviously he went straight to the press. Thus if President Obama and the UN actually wanted to silence him, they'd have more luck keeping him in Afghanistan! Firing him was the surest way to burst all this out into the open, not a smart move from a supposedly smart president, not a sign of understanding propaganda.

What happens to a banned book? It becomes the most popular book.

Obama has committed one error after another, first deploying troops without a review to secure the election, then still failing to secure the election, then prematurely declaring a successful election. Now he's cut himself by supporting Karzai and overseeing the UN minimize fraud, and expects to deploy more troops into this environment. It's hard to know what Obama is thinking but the tape doesn't lie, this strategy is nonsensical.

Mr. Galbraith was fired for being too real - for being a realist - and has an ally in Octopus Mountain should he choose to notice. Realists must unite.