the loya jirga will be convened -- not that the loya jirga will be convened in september or not -- that is not the problem. it does not undermine the term of this government of five years. people voted for them for five years. the constitution gives that. but the loya jirga, elections, all of these things, if it helps the government function effectively, if that does not happen, then this is a problem. mr. smith: since i started working in the first afghans election in 2003, i have always been bothered by the unrealistic timetables we have always set for ourselves. we got away with in 2004 and 2005. but when i saw the september agreement -- and one day i hope the history books will look at this -- i was appalled. whoever negotiated this put in place a series of processes that could not possibly be held within the timelines it was supposed to hold them, which meant it was doomed to begin -- fail from the beginning. i do not think anybody thought we would be having district, council elections this year and district-council boundaries have not been able to be drawn for 15 years. why would

not that a loya jirga will be convened in september or not -- that is not the problem. it does not undermine the term of this government of five years. the constitution gives that. but loya jirga, elections, all of these things, if it helps the government function effectively, if that does not happen, then this is a problem. mr. smith: since i started working in the first afghans election in 2003, i have always been bothered by the unrealistic timetables we have always set for ourselves. we got away with in 2004 and 2005. but when i saw the september agreement -- and one day i hope history books will look at this -- i was appalled. whoever negotiated this put in place a series of processes that could not possibly be held within the timelines it was supposed to hold them, which means it was doomed to begin with. i do not think anybody thought we would be having district, council elections this year and district-council boundaries have not been able to be drawn for 15 years. why we would get electronic ids issued to every afghan citizen when it has not been able to be don

government, because it's not based on the constitution of afghanistan, and we know it was based on loya jirga and vote of people. so, is it a successful model for future elections or is it just specifically for this five-year terms of any presidential period? thank you. >> quickly, i guess, on the tal talks. i was in kabul last week and was sort of asking people generally what this was about and sort of the elements of the responses i got was, one, it was a question of hegma tiara growing old and feeling he wanted to restore his dignity. two, it probably wouldn't have that much influence on in terms of levels of violence, because the main perpetrators. some people wanted to believe that if a deal could be struck between hegmar tiara and the government, it would send a positive effect that you could make a deal. but i think they said it would be announced within a week, so we'll see what the terms are. but i do think, and omar, you may have views on this also, they may put some stress on the government. and depending on what the conditions are, it sort of does seem to certain people as well as

if it does not act effectively, then they have a problem, not if the loya jirga is not reconvened in september or not. that's not a problem. it does not undermine the determine of this government, which is for five years, because people voted for five years. constitution gives it that term, five years. but the loya jirga, elections, all of these other things, constitution, is something that helped this government to function effectively. if that does not happen, then this is the problem for the legitimacy. >> since i started working on the first afghan election in around 2003, i've always been bothered by the totally unrealistic time tables we've always set for ourselves. and we got away with it in 2004 and 2005. but when i saw the agreement that was negotiated -- this is a september agreement. and one day i hope the history books will look at this. i was absolutely appalled. whoever negotiated this agreement put in place a series of processes that could not possibly be held within the time lines they were supposed to hold them, which meant it was doomed to fail from the beginning. a