Old Father William stated: Do you mean to say the UK forces who apparently are to support UN in Afghanistan, have a lot to learn?

I would say that everyone dealing with Afghanistan will either be in learning mode or ducking mode. The Americans, you will of course say, have nothing to learn ... but they better know how to duck, that's all.

You do not demonstrate an understanding of "fungible". Desertion is a unilateral decision in no way comparable to the substitution of a hundred Herefords for a hundred Angus of equal weight. Loyalty is not a commodity that can be exchanged back and forth in Afghanistan.

I trust you wrote this while suffering from a particularly bad senior moment. I made absolutely no comment on the appropriateness of the use of "fungible" in relation to the article it appeared in because I have not read the article. I merely stated that I knew the word and would not have been surprised to read it. Even writers for Time can be educated, you know, surprising as it may seem.

And loyalty is bought and sold all the time. How do you think pork-barrel politics works? The concept of loyalty is based on there being some compelling reason to adhere to one "faction" or another. If staying alive is a reason to change loyalties, then hey, I can be Catholic this week and Protestant the next along with the best of 'em.


The idiot also known as Capfka ...