Einstein was clever but...

“As long as there are sovereign nations possessing great power, war is inevitable”

A sovereign nation possesses great power because of itself and asks not beyond itself safe for the safety of its own people - at least that is the optimists simplistic view of the world. The pacifist will share it as well. The rest will realise that reality is not as rose tinted. Power must stay with the people for they alone are the final check on the executive's power when its ends start to justify it means, as is the current situation.

Which leads us to dreary prospects of wars - the necessary evil if you will. I have been noticing a lot of blogs lately positing widgets and posts suggesting exit strategies from Afghanistan. Yes, soldiers are dying there in obscene numbers thanks to our insane government. We cannot get away from that until we get a new government. However, say we give these bloggers the benefit of the doubt and we do withdraw from Afghanistan? What then? What was the point of the ultimate sacrifice for the soldiers? But even more so what will happen once the America, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands leave (countries which are actually doing something constructive unlike Germany and France which have their troops posted up north were there is precious little fight, at least not on the same scale as down south)?

Imagine a far away land completely left to its own devices, close to a lot of questionable and rough nations who would happily flog the people a couple of tons of weapons for a quick buck with no regard for the consequences. A far away land which has been seemingly at war for the past century is to be left to its own devices again. If we leave the country will destroy itself from within and will take others with it and there will a Tesco of Fundamentalists ruling the country again but this time very much stronger, spurred on by Islamic fanatics from around the world. If we leave we truly have lost the plot and this has been said about many a wars previously but this one we simply cannot afford to loose. If we lost the Falklands that would not really matters but loosing Afghanistan... The prospects are horrific.