Natascha and Misbah are the latest symbols o this contradiction

Now it can be re ealed that Buckingham Palace and Downing Street ha e been in negotiations with a iew to using the ga es and embarrassments o the Blairs' annual isit to Balmoral as a guide or uture prime ministers and or the royal couple themsel es It has been agreed that in orthcoming isits: 1. Not all A ghans are cut-throats; A ghanistan does not solely consist o bandit country. In the alleys and the cities, there ha e been gentler in luences, including Su ism and opium. But much o the mountain country is bleak, grand, glorious and pro oundly inhospitable. More rom Bruce Anderson.

It's o er. or the nation's two most distinguished amilies, an annual torment has just come to an end, ne er to be repeated. But he did not actor luck into his campaign calculations, in the way that the British go ernment has in A ghanistan The A ghan mission was always going to be di icult. Helmand pro ince is about the size o Scotland and the inhabitants are e en more truculent. In combat, luck is in aluable E en Napoleon wanted lucky generals. Natascha and Misbah are the latest symbols o this contradiction. They compel us to interrogate the acile assumptions we make about human li e and liberty.

Hope ully they make us a little more care ul, humble and aware that modern western societies do not hold all the answers.y.alibhai-brown independent.co.uk More rom Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. Or what dro e G?r Grass, when he was a teenager, to become a member o Hitler's Youth Brigade?Occidental messiahs want to spread libertine alues around the globe, by orce i necessary, just when many o the younger bene iciaries o this ree world are repulsed and con used by these alues. Is it partly about a search or order, rules, regulation, the com ort o authority? It may not be that di erent rom what happens when westernised young Muslims and Europeans take re uge in the most autocratic mani estations o Islam. Natascha's mother allegedly slapped her the day she disappeared, according to reports.