While the Obama administration mulls military alternatives in Afghanistan, it also needs to continue pressing for a credible government in the troubled country.

An agreement last week by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai to a runoff election was a step toward that goal, but the process is not complete and the situation is still evolving.

Karzai finally agreed to the runoff election after an international investigation concluded that there was widespread fraud in the Aug. 20 election. Karzai claimed about 55 percent of the votes cast, but the international audit said that perhaps a third of those were fraudulent.

Opposition candidate Abdullah Abdullah on Monday presented a list of demands he said must be met in order for the Nov. 7 runoff election to be free of fraud.

The list included the firing of the Afghan Independent Election Commission, the dismissal of three ministers in Karzai's cabinet and other actions.

Some observers speculated that Abdullah may be angling for a power-sharing arrangement with Karzai in lieu of a runoff election. Many international observers predict that Karzai will win the runoff election without the help of fraud, since it would be just a two-candidate race.

Some observers believe that a power-sharing arrangement would be more practical and perhaps more legitimate than a runoff election.

The runoff election is fraught with difficulty. The logistics alone are daunting. Some of the polling places are in remote locations that can be reached only by foot. The approaching winter could make traveling to polling places more difficult. And the biggest problem is that the Taliban has threatened to kill those who vote.

Abdullah's intentions are somewhat ambiguous, but there's little doubt that the United States and its NATO allies would be left in a quandary if Abdullah would follow through on a threat to boycott the election.

This summer's election fraud exposed how ineffective the United States and NATO have been in their attempt to stabilize Afghanistan.

But, as Tom Gouttierre of the Center for Afghan Studies in Omaha said, pulling out of Afghanistan at this point would break promises made to the Afghan people and reopen the possibility that al-Qaida would once again have room to grow.

Gouttierre believes that international community should have paid the Afghans themselves to rebuild roads and infrastructure, rather than hiring foreign contractors.

In order words, it's not just crucial military decisions in Afghanistan that face the Obama administration. Foreign policy decisions on election issues, financial aid and other programs to help the Afghans establish a legitimate government are just as important.