Elizabeth Rubin, reporting from Afghanistan:

"I swear," Akhundzada went on, eyes agog, "I have not killed a cat in all my life." With that he took off with his rifle-toting guards and disappeared into his armored SUV.

...

I recently asked an old friend of Karzai's why Karzai would choose as his running mate Muhammad Fahim, a controversial figure who has been accused of multiple human rights abuses over many years. "Karzai believes that his two greatest mistakes as president were the removals of Sher Muhammad Akhundzada and Marshal Fahim," he said. Both happened under intense Western pressure. The reason he regretted their removal was not that he thought they were honest statesmen but that he found they were more trouble out of office. Fahim's removal lost him mujahedin support, and Akhundzada's removal triggered the fall of Helmand Province to the Taliban.

...

The consensus in Afghanistan is that if the Aug. 20 elections are somehow fair -- which is impossible to guarantee -- there will most likely be a runoff in a second round.

Karzai remains well ahead. What happens if he wins? "What will you do then?" I asked an American working for the Obama administration.

"The first step is to shift away from the weekly pat on the back he got from Bush but not be as removed as Obama was," he said. "Then if we can reduce his paranoia and if he has a renewed mandate and if we get the good Karzai, the charming Karzai. ..." It was a lot of ifs.

Rory Stewart:

Americans are particularly unwilling to believe that problems are insoluble.

You may recall Rubin's last Afghanistan story, "Battle Company Is Out There":

If you peel back the layers, there's always a local political story at the root of the killing and dying.

It didn't take long to understand why so many soldiers were taking antidepressants.

When Bill Keller refers to "quality journalism", he's talking about Elizabeth Rubin:

By quality journalism I mean the kind that involves experienced reporters going places, bearing witness, digging into records, developing sources, checking and double-checking, backed by editors who try to enforce high standards. I mean journalism that, however imperfect, labors hard to be trustworthy, to supply you with the information you need to be an engaged citizen. The supply of this kind of journalism is declining because it is hard, expensive, sometimes dangerous work.