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Dear plutarch: I find merit in your discussion of the warlords, who have been surprisingly successful in maintaining their prestige for so many years, that they now are able to recruit some of the defectors When I said many defectors wanted to go home, the fact is few have homes to go to, so need the protection of some warlord, who would make them prove their worth by putting them in the front lines.
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they need the protection of some warlord, who would make them prove their worth by putting them in the front lines
At least they feed the canon fodder in the front lines. It all sounds very medieval, wwh. In feudal times, the serfs swore allegiance to a feudal lord in return for his protection. Protection was the sine qua non of the bargain. No protection. No allegiance.
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And the serf's "loyalty" was not "fungible". He was protected only to the extent that his lord needed him.
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i dunno, The King is Dead!--Long Live the King!--
and for a serf, one overlord was pretty much the same as another. so long as the serf had a place, a bit of food, and could go out his (her) day.. part of their lack of drive might have been poor health, (driven by a hard live, lack of food, and chronic lowgrade infections,) rather than any lack of moral fiber.. but even today, i am patriotic about the United States-- Not Dubya! and that has nothing to do with my dislike of him.. He just is a temporary representative. my feelings of patriotism (and they are deep and real, and recognize that US has been on the wrong side of some issues, ) don't depend on who is president. -- the leadership comes and goes. what ever honor is accorded the president, to some degree, and maybe not enough to use the word fungible, the holders of the office are interchangeable.
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"the holders of the office are interchangeable. "
Dear of troy: Not really. We could not swap Bush for Clinton back again, and it takes four years to make a swap.
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I have to disagree with Bill. "Fungible" is a word I have known for yonks, although I have to admit that I don't remember ever having used it myself. I can't remember where I picked it up, of course, but I would not have raised an eyebrow if I had read it in the article.
And unfortunately, the Afghani mujahadeen seem to change sides with depressing regularity. This is actually a survival trait rather than a death sentence. If your village is overrun by one side, you support that side. If it is then overrun by the other, well, the Vicar of Bray knew what to do. An Afghan peasant may not be rich, but on the average I'd say the stupid ones are dead. From what I've read and heard, this willingness to change sides at very little (or no) notice is accepted by the warlords as a fact of life and death. They have a feudal system of sorts, but no one should make the mistake of assuming that it is based on the European feudal system. It is, as they say, their very own.
I'd say the occupying forces ... er, sorry, I mean peacekeepers will have rather a lot to learn!
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Dear CK: Do you mean to say the UK forces who apparently are to support UN in Afghanistan, have a lot to learn?
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 do not doubt that you had prior knowledge of the word "fungible". That just puts you in the ten percent I said would recognize it. I still say it was a poor choice on that journalist's part.
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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 ...
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Dear CK: You appear to have a mental block that keeps you from grasping the important feature of "fungible" . Your senile moments are coming early.
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