Listen to the Mountains – Matthew Parris
Listen to the Mountains sounds like a strange title but according to Matthew Parris it is what Brigadier-General Walter Givehan of the US Forces in Afghanistan uses as part of his mission statement: a reminder, he said, always to be alert to one’s environment and ready to hear the lessons it may teach.
Matthew has a little story of the mountains that we should listen too. It is, as he says, a story of A betrayal, a shooting and tested loyalties: Afghanistan, he says, is a land riven by a thousand such stories. There is no happy ending.
Go and read it and try and understand what it is that is so difficult in Afghanistan. It is a story that will let you into a little of the hardships of trying to make peace in Afghanistan. As Matthew says at the end:
And, friends, we can’t do it. This isn’t do-able. Sometimes you have to listen to the mountains.
Zoom in to this small tale that spells defeat | Matthew Parris – Times Online.
