Abdullah Abdullah

Karzai served as Afghanistan's president from 2001 to 2014 and has expressed his goal to negotiate with the Taliban for the good of the country.

Thirteen years and 2,200 American lives later, we should bring all our troops home.

Rape, physical abuse, kidnappings and gender discrimination are on the cards as Western forces leave.

Security remains a concern for Afghanistan's allies, who gathered at a conference in London to discuss the country's future.

The US has given up fighting the information war -- which ISIS, the Russians and the Chinese are winning

Unless the Afghans settle their differences, the West will desert them and the Taliban will prosper.

"I'll never participate in elections in the future and won't let my family either."

The hasty U.S. troop withdrawal leaves Afghanistan vulnerable to Taliban

Afghanistan faces a deepening crisis over a disputed election which has stirred ethnic tensions

Preliminary results said that Ashraf Ghani had won the election to be president

Ashraf Ghani's rival Abdullah Abdullah came second with 43.56 percent of the vote, the Independent Election Commission said.

The vote has been plagued by accusations of mass fraud, and refusal by either candidate to accept the outcome could plunge the country into a dangerous crisis.

Abdullah's party aired what it said were intercepted phone conversations in which he ordered officials to stuff ballot boxes

"I have always maintained that the main rival is fraud," Abdullah, a former anti-Taliban resistance fighter, told reporters

The vote pits former anti-Taliban fighter Abdullah Abdullah against ex-World Bank economist Ashraf Ghani

Abdullah, a former leader of the opposition to the Islamist Taliban, came first in the largely peaceful first round of the poll to replace Hamid Karzai

If none of the candidates gets more than 50 percent, a runoff will have to be held, at the earliest in late May

As Afghans go to the polls under the shadow of violence and corruption, Americans may wonder, "Was it worth it?"