Two Pictures

After several days without posting a picture that I personally enjoy, I am offering two radically different scenes. One is pertinent to today's politics, the other is just an old 50s scene.



This is Afghanistan from the air. Centuries of invaders and warfare have denuded the mountains. No invader has really been successful in conquering this rugged land. Alexander the Great failed and turned towards India where his army final was on the edge of mutiny. Tamerlane was not victorious. From the 19th Century to today the British and the Russians tried.

The Allied forces here can only be as successful as the local tribes will permit. We can only expect a degree of political freedom that will be unique to the cultural heritage of this region, not what we visualize as American Democracy.








The day after the Fourth should be one of peace and reflection. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The rugged forbidding landscape of Afghanistan has a beauty of its own. I prefer the calmness of the harbor of St. John's in Antigua.