The Smoke of War

"Blue is the Smoke of War,
White the Bones of Man”

…a haiku by Japanese 3rd century poet Pu Ui captures in a few words the desolation and the stench of war in few words and large images. It proves that throughout history there has never be a grand our purposeful battle, a war that could be viewed with favour.

Likewise Herotdous the Greek historian captured the cost of war when he writes …

"Peace is when sons bury fathers; War is when fathers bury sons..”

These are words of relevance these few days after five more Australian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. Again this conflict that was intended to be a quickly carried out mission to capture Bin Ladin has now drawn out 10 years and gone far past it's original purpose. A purpose completed last year in Pakistan (a completely different country) last year by US soldiers not involved in Afgahnistan. It seems fair to ask wh is his conflict continuing? Are we like the Russians before us deluding ourselves thinking Afgahnistan is a place that can be westernized and tamed into a Western style democracy. Will Australia linger with the Americans so long in Afgahnistan that it will see the same result for its efforts as was sen in Vietnam - a loss of face and embarrassing withdrawal having to admit defeat.

Time to end it!
This long and protracted war was never intended to continue for the ten long years. To some it may seem like some form of back down to say its time to leave but for many who recall prior and like encounters, for example: Korea and Vietnam it is exactly the kind of stubbornness that persists to the bitter end that cost even more in needless waste of life and loss of belief in democracy,