The die hards remain, the celebs and want to be celebs down to the E list have left. Perhaps only the true believers will be able to claim that they witnessed history and yet everyone who has left will tell tales of how they were here and watched it. I doubt that half the people here know the difference between the donkey and the elephant and who is blue and who is red.

Speaking of colors correspondent Greg Palkot and I almost had a heart attack when the embassy map showed the state of New York as red before they changed it to blue, apparently the computers colors everything red first , and then you have to change it.

In the next hour I hope to witness history, perhaps that is why working in the media is magic at times, then again anything is better than two weeks ago in Afghanistan.

Update: The air is stale , more of the guests have had more than would permit them to drive a vehicle home and yet still you cannot hear a coverage above the social chit chat. The best thing about the top of the hour is that the next round of results are due out and like a firework parade the whoas and ahhs will echo around the room.

The hard thing about time differences is that over here it is already tomorrow and yet the time on the East Coast is 8pm. And watching various monitors around the embassy you are beseiged by  the flashing of figures across screens, we cannot contribute much as there is no reaction to results because they are still to be counted. The mood of the party makes me wish that I had spent more time reading celebrity magazines like Hello as the guest list here grows and given that the locals have not figured out how to turn on the air conditioners correctly. Most of the guests sip white wine and try to network amongst themselves. The map on the wall has only two states colored and the cut outs have finally become somewhat irrelevant as almost everyone has had their photo taken with them. It appears that we will still be here at 3am at least providing those chads are a thing of the past.

US Embassy London Local Time 9 pm , East Coast Time 4 pm: Sitting in the Via Reception room at the US Embassy here in London is somewhat of a weird place to observe a moment in history that is likely to happen in the coming hours. The local evening newspapers here in London have all agreed that Barack Obama is likely in the coming hours to become the next President and here in the Reception room there are four cardboard cutouts of the candidates where you can have your photo taken with your favorite. So far no one has had a photo taken with McCain or Joe Biden. Obama is the favorite, though Pallin is popular because she is shorter.

We all remember where we were in great moments of history: Man on the Moon, 9/11 attacks and perhaps tonight is the next defining moment when a black man becomes President of the USA. Apart from that, we wait till the early hours of the morning here, as we are five hours ahead of New York and it is most likely that we will be here till 4 in the morning. Meanwhile the Obama cutout remains the most popular and if that is any indication of the cut out exit poll, perhaps the night will not be that long. And history may start a little bit earlier.

Afghanistan: September & October 2008

It would be easy to say that the war in Afghanistan is simply that a war between good and evil or a matter of faith depending on how you worship.  How does one define victory, there will be no peace accord signed or will we watch two sides try and rebuild there nations as in previous wars?

The cold hard reality is that no one cares about Afghanistan and never will.  Afghans did not directly blow up the twin towers on 911.  So the question they ask all the time is why are there still foreign troops on their soil.  The enemy is there but is not seen.

After nearly a month in Afghanistan, I look back and see nothing positive.  The role of the American soldier cannot be questioned, each and everyone I met was that of caring.  But we did meet soldiers with the look of defeat who openly questioned the effectiveness of the current strategy.  The look in his eyes was the best mirror to the current situation there.  And that reflection is the look of pointlessness.

Hard cold facts are never pleasant and the reality in Afghanistan is that corruption is pandemic. It is in and at every level of society and this cancer feeds on itself and the more money that is poured into Afghanistan every day, lines the pockets of the corrupt, twenty families now effectively control Afghanistan according to a recent British fact finding mission to Afghanistan.

Fact, you want to become a Police Chief, with a profitable narcotics route through your district – going rate is $150,000 and you get the badge, keep paying those above and take without mercy from those below.

Fact, In Southern Afghanistan, being a farmer, from Lashkar Gar and taking your crop and trying to bring your crop to Kandahar, to sell has become pointless.  Police and Bandits set up roadblocks on almost all roads and by paying all the bribes there is no money to be made.  So why grow crops when if you grow Opium you will have the protection of the local Warlord who in turn controls the Authorities.  The farmer can now feed his family and have safety.

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