Mustard Tree

When will the West stop meddling in Afghanistan? British soldiers have been dying in the Afghan sands for 150 years and seven more have died in the last seven days. All in the name of the war on terror, which is largely an exercise in the manufacturing of public opinion, based on exaggerations and outright lies, and sold to the young men whose lives are on the line by the most cynical or the most ignorant politicians.

And why? To secure territory for a gas pipeline to get Eurasian oil and gas out to the West without having to run it through Russia. If ever there were an instance of genuine evil, this would be it.

Years ago someone profoundly observed that the biggest war criminals don't wear military fatigues, they wear suits and smile and meet in smoky boardrooms in secret, genuinely thinking that their plotting and planning is in the best interests of the world but is far too important for the people to know.

The main difference between them and you and me is that they are prepared, for all kinds of reasons, to treat people and people groups as 'population' rather than individuals. Maybe that's all it takes for evil to prosper, to treat people as things. Heaven help us all.