Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials -- August 20, 2009

An Afghan woman, seen at a polling station in Jalalabad the provincial capital of Nangarhar province east of Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday,Aug 20, 2009. Afghans voted under the shadow of Taliban threats of violence Thursday to choose their next president for a nation plagued by armed insurgency, drugs, corruption and a feeble government nearly eight years after the U.S.-led invasion. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)

The Worst Case Scenario For The Afghan Election -- Christian Brose, Foreign Policy

August is always the worst month for surprises, which often take the form of wars: World War I, the Gulf War, and more recently, the Lebanon War and the Russia-Georgia War. For fear of jinxing a good thing, I shudder to say that we're halfway through August, and so far so good. But there is that business of tomorrow's election in Afghanistan. The worst case scenario for it may be improbable, but it's not impossible. And it certainly could rise to the level of nasty "August crisis." So what might that look like?

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COMMENTARIES, OPINIONS, AND EDITORIALS

Why the Afghan Election May Not Matter -- Thomas P. M. Barnett, Esquire

Fragments of the Afghan State -- Matthew Yglesias, American Prospect

Idealists Transforming Afghanistan -- R. Moreau & S. Yousafzai, Newsweek

Which Afghan Election Result Is Best for U.S.? -- Tony Karon, Time

Kick Out Karzai, Save My Country -- Ashraf Ghani, The Times

Abdullah Abdullah: Afghanistan's New Hope -- Michael Petrou, Maclean's

The Afghans Vote -- Washington Post editorial

Authoritarian Arms - Ariel Cohen and Owen B. Graham, Washington Times opinion

Spy Agency Fiasco -- Joseph Finder, Daily Beast

Panetta Revealed -- Daniel Halper, Commentary

Medvedev's Message to the Ukraine -- New York Times editorial

Khamenei vs. Khomeini -- Ali Reza Eshraghi, New Republic