Ballot Fraud, Mafia Rule making Afghans Pessimistic: Chayes

Juan Cole 10/29/2010

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.

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment. He is Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan and an adjunct professor, Gulf Studies Center, Qatar University. He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires. Follow him on Twitter at @jricole or the Informed Comment Facebook Page