Reprieve!

To perhaps answer both Steve and Sand I think you give too little credit to the job the troops are doing. Every day in live fire contacts and in small tasks of reconstruction and assurance they are providing fleeting contributions towards civilisation. It is also a mistake to perceive the entire country as bound up in destruction all the time. Quite simply it is coalition forces that are presently the only serious barrier to armed gangs pushing aside the _elected_ representatives of the people.

 

As to Sand's contention that peace can only come about through getting bored of war I think you give war too little credit for its qualities of diversion. Afghanistan has been more or less at war constantly for the last 600 years. They are to be sure growing tired of it, but not so tired that anyone wants to be the first to quit in the face of their longstanding opponents. Some wars, but especially fueding wars are very slow burning. They are like underground coal fires that provide their own oxygen.

 

I often find it instructive to refer to friends who have studied older British history. We did not ascend into civilisation because we got bored of savagery. We were pacified with either force or the threat of force. Once in a restless state of peace we were gradually tamed by careful social engineering and meat pies. I can't oveemphasise the pies.

Also, Northern Island (and Ireland in general) has been in "at war", with the British-patronised Protestants and Catholic Separatists at each other's throats, for over 500 years. Once each side has inflicted some sort of "ultimate solution" atrocity on the other, it provides a demonstrable reason to not give up until victory. If not for a sustained effort over many decades, the current (final?) peace settlement there would never have happened, as the Orange and Green divide would never have "healed".