The war in Afghanistan

The Stanley McChrystal show seems to be the only show in town these days.

It all happens because of Eyjafjallajokull, a long drive to Berlin, journalist getting too pally with army types and then too much drink in an Irish pub in Berlin.

It is also an insight into the shadowy world of who actually runs the show in democracies. The mix of army and secret service agencies seems to be the lethal cocktail that controls the engines in democracies.

Think of the power, privilege and prestige of MI5/6, CIA, Mossad (המוסד), BND(Bundes Nachrichten Dienst) etc and then compare their ethos and lives with what it must be for the mother, father, partner, child of the young soldier who is maimed or killed while 'fighting for country' in far-off Afghanistan.

And think of the thousands of Afghans who have been killed.

The soldier, whatever his nationality and his dead Afghan 'enemy' share the reality that most of them are the dispossessed, the unemployed.

And we keep glorifying the endeavours of war.

The calamity that is hitting the church at present is a result of people daring to uncover 'secrets'. Why cannot the same discovery process take place in armies and secret service agencies?

It should. Everything is possible.