Dear Georgia:
Jubilation on the left side of the American political spectrum has hardly worn off in the wake of the midterm elections. And why not? ...
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I warmly encourage comments, and will often reply or revise the body of the post in response. However, I will not tolerate any disinformation or gratuitously offensive material on this site. Here we uphold our own highest standards. I will remove comments that violate them.
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Sarah Chayes
- Aug 4, 2022
- 9 min
Three Strikes
So. Ayman al-Zawahiri is killed at last. Ayman al-Zawahiri, mastermind of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, successor to Usama bin Laden at...
Sarah Chayes
- Jul 25, 2022
- 6 min
The Need for Eden
How to count the questions raised by the gob-smacking moment unfolding around us? Here’s one that’s been plaguing me. By what kind of...
Sarah Chayes
- May 26, 2022
- 9 min
Guest Blog
Updated 27 May, 2022 First, a word on guns. I am disgusted with us, and our strange addiction to them. Like many of you, I suspect, I...
Sarah Chayes
- May 7, 2022
- 5 min
Midas...The Sequel
A recent post by the brilliant Martin Shaw got me thinking about my old sparring partner, Midas. Shaw is a myth-sayer — the best, the...
Sarah Chayes
- Mar 8, 2022
- 3 min
Ukraine Can Win
(If NATO Provides Safe-Havens For Its Fighters) When Russian troops crossed into Ukraine on February 24, its people astonished the world...
Sarah Chayes
- Feb 24, 2022
- 8 min
Who Benefits from Afghans' Distress?
Months after the United States lost the longest war it ever fought — well before the shocking outbreak of hostilities in Europe displaced...
Sarah Chayes
- Sep 30, 2021
- 8 min
Trying to Help
Updated on 3 October, to include the conditions GoFundMe is now imposing for withdrawal of donated funds. “I’m weak,” said the man on the...
Sarah Chayes
- Sep 7, 2021
- 5 min
National Interests
“Look,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a reporter on August 30. “We are not in a place yet where we are...
Sarah Chayes
- Sep 4, 2021
- 7 min
Resources
(Updated 17 September, 2021, to include current conditions, money-transfer logistics, resources for helping would-be refugees submit...
Sarah Chayes
- Aug 31, 2021
- 8 min
A Friend in Deed?
“Washington consulted the Taliban, but informed the Allies. At least that’s how it seemed to us.” The man on the phone is a retired NATO...
Sarah Chayes
- Aug 28, 2021
- 5 min
Who Rules Afghanistan?
A few brief dispatches, for at least a glimpse of what some Afghans are seeing and discussing. One of you commented below on the...
Sarah Chayes
- Aug 24, 2021
- 16 min
Failing States?
Updated September 8, 2021, principally to add a riff on Pakistan and the Afghan economy. I write this post with the dizzying impression...
Sarah Chayes
- Aug 22, 2021
- 5 min
Ear to the Ground
My thanks to all of you for taking the time to read these posts, and to those who sent comments. Your words are a solace. Several of...
Sarah Chayes
- Aug 19, 2021
- 1 min
Afghanistan Action Plan: January 2009
Dear Friends: A number of people have wondered whether any of the things included in my previous post were being said when it was soon...
Sarah Chayes
- Aug 16, 2021
- 8 min
The Ides of August
August 15, 2021 I’ve been silent for a while. I’ve been silent about Afghanistan for longer. But too many things are going unsaid. I...
Sarah Chayes
- Jan 28, 2021
- 6 min
Follow-Up
My last blog, “Time Out,” drew some excellent questions and reactions, most sent directly to me. So -- with thanks to the readers who did...
Sarah Chayes
- Jan 15, 2021
- 8 min
Time Out...
…From On Corruption in America, for current events – which are not unrelated. In the face of what went down on January 6, I, like many,...
Sarah Chayes
- Dec 5, 2020
- 4 min
Insight #3: Jesus Takes On the Kleptocracy
ONCE MONEY BECOMES the main measure of social standing, what do people running the endless race do? They turn humans back into apes. By...
Sarah Chayes
- Nov 16, 2020
- 4 min
Insight #2: The Egalitarian Ape
BEAR WITH ME. We’re getting to corruption, I promise. But first we need to step even further back in time, to the very origins of our...
Sarah Chayes
- Nov 8, 2020
- 4 min
On Corruption in America -- And What Is at Stake, Insight #1: Midas
A FEW WORDS OF BACKGROUND before I launch into the heart of this note. My recent book is not specifically about our unprecedented...
Sarah Chayes
- Jun 3, 2020
- 4 min
Happy Music
It may seem obscene to talk about money today: a day when our country is reeling with grief. Grief at a knee on the neck of a man. One...
Sarah Chayes
- May 7, 2020
- 2 min
The Power of Simplicity
How did “something so genetically simple…manag[e] to bring the planet to its knees?” Virologist Christopher Mores voiced that question on...
Sarah Chayes
- Mar 23, 2020
- 4 min
Bail Out
The U.S. Senate is in a tussle over the conditions for handing out more than a trillion dollars of our money in an effort to cushion the...
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