photos from Afghanistan
 

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/200...mber_2009.html

Some are of US soldiers, but all are interesting.

A picture is worth a thousand words although the comments by the first poster after the pics is worth reading, couldn't have said it better:

"I am old now and cannot go to this place to kill Taliban. It is not fair that the mistakes of men my age result in such death and injury to be suffered by the young. I support every last one of the young men and think, meditate and pray for them. There is much to weep about here but that would not save one Marine. I know now at my age that Socarates was right, "Only the dead have seen the end of war." I am not comforted by this, I am left very cold. Soon enough it will be over for me, most of you will have to live with it for a while." ~ Posted by Tom Edmisten September 29, 09 12:28 P ~

Great post Rev, thank you.

"Only the dead have seen the end of war" is actually a quote from Plato but we can forgive the memory of one with a heart such as Mr. Edmisten.

Did Plato really write
"Only the dead have seen the end of war" ?

Since this quote appeared, attributed to Plato, at the beginning of Ridley Scott's 2001 movie "Black Hawk Down", several people have asked for the exact source of the quote in Plato's dialogues. Yet, we have been unable, to this day, to locate it in any one of them.

And I'm not the only one in that case ! One person who asked was Mr Michael Takiff, who had come up with the quote, attributed to Plato, in a letter from a soldier in Vietnam to his father while preparing a book called "Brave Men, Gentle Heroes: American Fathers and Sons in World War II and Vietnam", to be published by HarperCollins in 2003. I was unable to help him, but I later learned, in further exchanges I had with him by mail, that, with the help of friends and colleagues, he had come up with the following about the quote:

No one he had been in touch with had been able to locate it in a dialogue of Plato.
Yet, it can be found, attributed to Plato, in General Douglas MacArthur's farewell address to the cadets at West Point (May, 1962).
Mr. Bernard Duffy, of California Polytechnic State University, coeditor of a book of MacArthur's speeches, had told him that the quote could be found on the web as a quote of George Santayana's, and further digging confirmed that it could be read in Santayana's "Soliloquies in England" (Scribners, 1924, p. 102), Soliloquy #25, "Tipperary", in a section which reads: "Yet the poor fellows think they are safe! They think that the war is over! Only the dead have seen the end of war." Santayana does not attributes the saying to Plato, or anybody else for that matter (1).
It shows up, again attributed to Plato, on the wall of the Imperial War Museum in London.
Here is what Mr Takiff wrote me on August 2, 2002 about the quote, based on these data:

"I think it's almost certain that MacArthur's use of the quotation in his famous speech in 1962 accounts for the its popularity among American soldiers. However, I'm doubtful that MacArthur is the ultimate source of the quotation's attribution to Plato. My reason is that it appears, attributed to Plato (just Plato, no citation), on the wall of the Imperial War Museum in London. (I owe my awareness of this appearance of the quote to a former professor of mine -- Victor Bers, a classicist at Yale -- who recently visited the museum.) The museum has been housed at this location since 1936; of course, the quotation could have been put up any time since. One would think, however, that the keepers of this institution would practice more scholarly discipline than the producers of a Hollywood war movie. And so, I'm doubtful that the quotation's route to the museum's wall passed through General MacArthur's speech.
I have just emailed the director of research at the museum. I'll let you know what, if anything, I find out."

In short, the attribution of this quote to Plato remains most questionable, while its appearence in works by George Santayana is a fact, and the possibility that the source of its misattribution to Plato be General McArthur is quite real, though not proven.

If I learn more about it, I'll update this page. And if anybody around finds it in one of Plato's dialogues, please let me know, I'll be glad to add his/her name to this page as the finder of the quote in Plato...

Cheers
DeadlyDaring

I have to admit, I'm somewhat troubled by our presence in Afghanistan. I mean, why the hell are we there? It seems that once again we've gotten ourselves into a situation that is turning into a quagmire. Is it to kill Bin Laden? I doubt it since if the Western powers were serious about killing him it could've been done years ago? Is it to "free" the Afghans from Taliban tyranny? To be honest, I really don't think the tribes care especially since they hate outsiders even more then they hate each other. Is it to halt the spread of Islam, the so-called "religion of peace"? If so, it has to be an all out combined military effort by the democratic west and the communist east, and we're not about to do that.

I'm serious about this. Can anyone provide a good explanation?

revwardoc
 

The short answer is Afghanistan is up for grabs by international terrorist groups without the support of US and coalition forces. Terrorist getting their hands on Pakistan’s nukes are in the equation also. There are already groups within Pakistan working hard to get their hands on them. Afghanistan could become one huge staging area and training area again for terrorist around the world. Just a few things to think about. I’m way out of my lane going any farther than this.

You can garner some knowledgeable information on all sides of the discussion at Small Wars Journal.

http://smallwarsjournal.com/

A good inside view of the tribes can be found here:

http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/category/tribal-chief/

and here:

http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/category/one-tribe-at-a-time/

and here:

http://blog.stevenpressfield.com/vblog/

Good info and commentary here:

http://www.blackfive.net/

Good current news and commentary found here:

http://www.longwarjournal.org/