I heard Sarah Chayes at the Michigan Theater on Thursday afternoon, speaking on Afghanistan.
She is a long time expatriate in Qandahar, where she arrived late in 2001 as a reporter. She has gone on to be an entrepreneur of the Peace Corps kind, and a consultant to the ISAF forces….
…[Text removed at speaker’s request.]
Chayes’ book on Afghanistan is The Punishment of Virtue.
See for the courant situation in Afghanistan on the ‘other midterms’, those in Afghanistan this fall, this essay at Tomdispatch by Ann Jones.
Unembedded investigative journalists Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley bring news of Afghanistan and The Troubles there.
Killing Reconciliation: Military Raids, Backing of Corrupt Government Undermining Stated US Goals in Afghanistan
The Obama administration says it is backing a strategy of reconciliation with the Taliban. But just back from Afghanistan, unembedded investigative journalists Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley say night raids by US Special Operations are killing the reconciliation the administration claims to support.
link to democracynow.org
link to thenation.com
Corruption? Well, we wanted to install American style government…
Change that to election fraud and fascist thuggery and we can neatly segue into the US midterms next Tuesday.