It is interesting looking at the current issueof Newsweek online. You can find both the U.S.edition and the international ones. The frontpage of all the international editionsfeatures an Afghan guerilla holding a rocketlauncher and is headlined “Losing Afghanistan.”The U.S. edition, on the other hand, has a pictureof photographer Annie Leibovitz and isheadlined “My Life In Pictures.”

One wonderswhether “Losing Afghanistan” is just a sales ployfor the international market or if Newsweekdoesn’t want to put the issue too boldly in theface of its U.S. readers.

The Los Angeles Times does not seem to have thesame sensitivities as Newsweek. It recently rana two-part feature story reporting apparentabuse, torture and murder by U.S. Forces inAfghanistan.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister StephenHarper had his moment of glory at the UnitedNations and spent it telling the GeneralAssembly how important the war was. He made ita point to tell the Assembly thatthe democratically elected government ofAfghanistan requested UN intervention. OfCourse, what he didn’t say was that the so-called democratically elected government existsat the pleasure of the United States and anysuch request should be looked upon as comingfrom Washington.

Washington’s role in the troubles in the areawas further exposed last week when PervezMusharraf, the President of Pakistan, let thecat out of the bag when he told 60 Minutes thatPakistan joined the U.S. effort when he wasthreatened that Pakistan would be bombed backinto the Stone Age if it did not.

Mr. Harperwould have more credibility if he would quitplaying charades and admit that there is a warin Afghanistan because the U.S. wants one there,and we are there for the same reason.

Before going to New York, the Prime Ministerpumped himself up on CTV at the expense ofCanadian veterans when he said that the miliaryis better now and that “for a lot of the last30 or 40 years, we were the ones hanging back.”Apparently to Mr. Harper anyone who has servedduring the last 40 years didn’t do very much.For him it seems missions like Cyprus, Haiti,Sinai, the Golan Heights, Bosnia, Kosovo andothers were really not worth noting.

Perhapshe feels ashamed that we did not sink ourfortunes and thousands of lives in the swampsof Vietnam. One wonders what kind of personalmilitary experience the PM draws upon forforming his opinions?

Experience or no, events in the world make itlook as if Mr. Harper will get to play the roleof war Prime Minister and gopher for Mr. Bushas long as Canadians will tolerate him and therising casualty rate that it will cost. Mr.Bush likes to rant and rave about enemies andIslamofascists, whatever that means, and lookfor bogeymen everywhere to create a fear inthe American people that can be manipulated forpolitical advantage. Watch for the war PrimeMinister to follow suit here at home.

Recently the purveyors of fear and conflictreceived a helping hand from the Pope whodelivered a speech attacking Islam and addingfuel to an already hot fire. It was notexactly the kind of move one would make if theywere looking for peace and cooperation.

Onewonders if the Pope was trying to stake out aplace in what Professor Franz Schurmann callsthe Second 30 Years War, just hates Islam, orhas lost a few marbles. Condemning thereligion as one of violence and calling it onewith “things only evil and inhuman” was aninvitation to a fight, not a peace parley.

This is particularly so in that both Christianhistory and the history of Islam have theirviolent as well as peaceful chapters. Theleader of a religion that participated as apartner in violent and bloody conquests forcenturies around the globe and suppressed itsown heretics with cruel tortures and gruesomedeaths has little credibility when pointing thefinger at others.

Of course, one of the after-effects of thePope’s speech was rioting and demonstrations insome Muslim areas, including the murder of anun. Perfect stuff for keeping the fear factorup. Islam is called a religion of violence,Muslims kill a nun in retaliation and prove thepoint. Never mind that the vast majority arejust as appalled at this as are most non-Muslims, and just as most reasonable peoplewould be if they knew of the Christian militiain Indonesia that hunted down and killedMuslims.

Unfortunately, reason is the anti-thesis of fear mongering, so as long as leadersfind it convenient to have a Global War OnTerror whether it be in Iraq and Afghanistan asit is at present, or anywhere else they see fitto have it, expect to hear more fearful thingsfrom them than reasonable.

And, don’t expectto hear too much from them about losing.