Ghost Wars

pThis blog has been started unexpectedly and sponataneously after a telephone call with a friend. At the moment I am really not sure, which direction it will take; will it be a "potpourri", a sort of diary about this, that and the next thing, a sort of "kunterbunte Mischung" of everything concerning its author or will it be more focused. Even in writing this I can sense that, while it is bound to suffer from that indecision common to Pisceans, it will slowly take shape and find some sort of focus. As indeed, even the most fickle of people tend to do during the course of their lives.
It is perhaps suitable therefore that I should continue this first entry by telling a little story and then going on to recommend a book and in doing so maybe I am already beginning to give my blog some sort of direction.
Some years ago I had a contract teaching business skills in a company that built oil pipelines all over the world. One day they had a visitor from Texas who walked into my class on negotiations. In a role play half of the students represented the oil company and the other half were representatives from the Afghani government. It was explained to the visitor that a pipeline was being planned from Turkmenistan to Karachi but that we had this little problem of Afghanistan in the middle. The said visitor replied by saying in his slow Texan drawl, "we will soon have that solved." This was about one year before 9/11. Now read, "Ghost Wars" by Steve Coll.