Money is the life blood of politics--even in Afghanistan.

In the public polling by IRI , Karzai has 44%, Abdullah Abdullah 26%, Ramzan Bashardost 10% and Ashraf Ghani 6%.

The rest of the candidates, 41 in all were too low to even note.

Being below 50% is always a bad place for an incumbent--especially in Afghanistan where you have to have 50% plus one vote to win and avoid the runoff.

In my experience in campaigns, undecideds often break against the incumbent.  The only time they do not is if the incumbent can run a negative campaign against the challenger(s).

In the money Abdullah Abdullah raised 38,510,000 Afghanis in the most recent reporting period I could find. This is about $770,000 US Dollars.

Ashraf Ghani raised $259,248 US and Bashardost raised $92.

Karzai reported no contributions.  But did report expenditures of $107,000.  During a previous reporting period, Karzai reported $2,000,000 USD in contributions.  The source of the funds was a loan from Ghazanfar Bank.

Abdullah has raised a total of $1,137,000 US, Ghani raised $415,200, Bashardost $25,000.

As the race heads down to the wire, it is between Abdullah Abdullah and Karzai.

The Afghan Independent Election Commission will release the unofficial results on September 3rd and final certified results of the Presidential election on September 17th.  If there is no winner, then the top two go into a runoff.

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This is the most foreign experience I have ever had, domestic air travel within Afghanistan.

Alexander the Great may have marched his army to Herat , but flying to Herat with Pamir Airways on a Boeing 737-200.

But before that, I had to navigate the domestic terminal of Kabul International Airport.

The staff of the International Terminal are used to westerners.  The Domestic Terminal...not so much.

I just followed the flow of people through the initial hand search of baggage and frisking to the check in counter.  No swiping of the credit card here--although you can book your flight with Pamir online and it does work.

Then security screening with X-ray and metal detector at which point it is unclear where one should go.

One of the most peculiar aspects of embedding with coalition forces is how often one find themselves hitch hiking or trying to hop on a helicopter.

Over the years, I developed a technique that helps by embracing my inner highway hitch hiker.

My hitch hiking destination card.

The American hitch hiker carries a sign with a name of a city.  The embedded hitch hiker hangs out at the helicopter landing zone and slowly walks up to the pilot or crew chief and asks if he can jump in.

I started using the sign a few years ago in Iraq.  It works well.

It worked to get me a ride from Mehtar Lam back for FOB Fenty.  In fact the pilot and crew chief got a kick out of the sign.  Especially when I give them the thumb.

Just north of the delta of the Alishang and Alengar river valleys, in the middle of a dozen square miles of green rice paddies, are the home villages of the Katal Kheil sub-tribe.

We drove in MRAPs out of Mehtar Lam on the asphalt highway for a few kilometers, the winding twisty roads of the city giving way to the rural farm villages, then nothing but a ribbon of asphalt cutting through the irrigated fields.  Beyond the rice paddies and irrigated corn fields, the jagged rocky brown of Amber Ghar mountain rose for 2,112 meters at its peak.

The mission was what the military calls a KLE or Key Leader Engagement.  Only military could give such a sterile, functional name to sitting down with the power brokers of a tribe and laying the foundation of a working relationship.

And relationship is the key.

Counter insurgency is not about how many bad guys were killed, it is about how many powerbrokers are on your side--especially the ones who are willing to marginalize if not out right eliminate the bad guys.

The true mission was to find the powerbrokers, the Maliks, talk with them, and begin to build that relationship.  This involves sitting down on the carpet under a tree and drinking tea.

But first you have to hike to the village.

The soldiers and I exited the MRAPs and followed a narrow road too small for even a humvee for three kilometers in the 106 degree heat and humidity from the flooded rice paddies.

Irrigation canals flowed slow, meandering along the road and under the road. 

The boys of Katal show off by doing flips into the irrigation canal.

Deep inside the rice paddies, we reached the heart of the village of Katel.

Kids were everywhere, young men loitered, only a few young girls ventured out, there were no women in sight.

And the dance began.

Sixteen kilometers up the Alishang river valley from Mehtar Lam is the village of Watangatu.

Like all the villages in the Alishang valley, Watangatu is a farming village where the local Ghilzai Pashtuns grow corn and rice in the fertile fields irrigated from the rapid flowing river.

Rice paddies irrigated by the Alishang river.  Taken from the side door of a Blackhawk helicopter

But Watangatu has a distinction that sets it apart from its neighbors in the valley, it is a common ambush site which is why I was there along with the Governor of Lagham province, the Chief of Police and the Commander of the local Afghan National Army Battalion.

One could call it a Shura or a Jirga, but Americans would understand it as a town hall meeting.

Pashtun men from Watangatu react to a quip the Governor of Lagham province

The Afghan government with the support of USAID and the local military Provisional Reconstruction Team is building a paved road up the valley, but the sniping and violence is slowing construction.

Rather than go in with a heavy hand and use an infantry battalion like a sledge hammer to try and swat a few flys, the US Army Battalion in charge of Lagham province and the PRT decided to use the traditional Afghan approach--a Shura.

The exhuast from the four engines of a C-130 cargo plane is hot enough to cook flesh.

As you exit the cargo ramp, the exhaust has cooled down to a 150 degree 70 mile per hour wind.

As I walked out the exhaust blast I discovered the rest of FOB Fenty in Jalalabad felt just as hot.  

Jalalabad is one of the hottest places in Afghanistan in the summer but has a mild winter climate.

It is a sprawling city of concrete, mudbrick and dust at the confluence of the Kunar and Kabul rivers, is the dominant city in Nangarhar province. 

Jalalabad and Kabul river

Alexander the Great's army massed near Jalalabad before his invasion of the Indus valley in modern day Pakistan.

Sounds like the set for a joke, but I was met at the airport by two Afghans who work with a friend of mine in the logistics business.

Kabul International is a busy airport.  Several regional airlines run daily flights around Afghanistan and between international destinations like Dubai and New Delhi.

JD outside the old terminal at Kabul International

The baggage claim system in the new terminal works well and as an airport, it could compare with smaller, regional airports in places like Topeka, KS.

I was met by two local Afghans who took me on a driving tour of Kabul and then on to Bagram.

JD is short for Jawad, he is a Hazar, an ethnic group in the north/central part of Iraq.   

And Haji is Haji because he has made the Haj.  Haji also fought with the Taliban for a few years before going into the logistics business with a few western expats

JD (left) and Haji (right)

We took the scenic route, winding through Kabul from the airport to the Intercontinental Hotel, where we had lunch with a friend of mine from Iraq who is working with NDI running a team of election monitors.