EXCELLENT roads, lined with elegant pine-trees, make Herat an unusual Afghan city.
Herat wondered when the right time was to use the scissors and box cutters.
Johnson then handed Herat "a pair of scissors and a Stanley box cutter".
But they worked as a deterrent.In a relatively benign northern arc, from Herat in the west to Nangarhar in the east, turnout was as high as 60% in some areas, though in Nangarhar it fell to about 35%, and overall turnout was well below the level achieved in the previous presidential poll in 2004.
Elsewhere, food-aid can be more dangerous; a large crate, dropped in the western city of Herat on Monday night, demolished the shrine of the city's most revered Sufi saint.
Seats in the next government will not only be allocated to achieve a different ethnic balance, but may also be used to buy allegiance from local commanders, such as Ismail Khan in Herat, who have so far thumbed their noses at central authority.Mr Karzai's job as head of government seems secure, at least.
According to a local human-rights group, at least 56 people have set themselves ablaze in Herat, a city in western Afghanistan, in the past year.
For example, the governor of Herat, Ismail Khan, controls most of the west of Afghanistan and has a personal army of around 40,000.
After a crisis meeting on November 4th the Herat chamber of commerce urged the Afghan government to ask Iran to relent.
Iranian cultural influence has grown steadily, particularly in Herat, since 2001.
The most hideous attack of the day may have been one that did not kill anybody: Taliban in the western province of Herat took hold of 11 men who had voted and had ink stains on their fingertips to prove it.
