NORWAY

NORWAY

Aftenposten, Oslo, Norway, on Afghanistan: Few believed Afghanistan would become peaceful overnight. But even fewer imagined the negative trend we have recently witnessed. The increasing number of civilian deaths is a serious reminder of the high price paid by the Afghan people for the conflict between (President) Hamid Karzai’s government and international forces on one side and the Taliban inspired rebels and their allies on the other.

In June, the number of foreign soldiers killed in Afghanistan was the highest in a single month since the invasion that brought down the Taliban regime in 2001. Even though that was seven years ago, the situation is by no means under control. Over the last two months, more foreign soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan than in Iraq.

Unclear and confusing fronts are among the most serious problems in the Afghan conflict. One thing is that local warlords play their own game, without much regard for centralized authorities.

The humanitarian aid effort by the U.N. and others has been badly hurt by large parts of Afghanistan being marked by unclear and shifting power balances.

It has been impossible to achieve even a small improvement in living conditions for most people. Taliban and their cohorts have thereby succeeded with their destructive tactics. That is the biggest tragedy.

GREAT BRITAIN

The Times, London, on female bishops: Rarely has a General Synod seen such emotion, heard such passionate supplications or witnessed such agonized conflicts of conscience and loyalty. The York meeting of bishops, clergy and lay members of the Church of England tested the faith of those present in a way that few other Anglican debates have done in recent years. And after months of tension, factionalism and lobbying, the long debate on the consecration of women bishops was cathartic. It was also refreshingly decisive. The Church of England has voted for the full ecclesiastical equality of women. In the conflict of tradition with reform, reform has triumphed.

The question now is whether the traditionalists can reconcile themselves to the decision. About 1,300 threatened before the vote to leave the Church. Far fewer will carry out their threat. The assumption that they could move en masse to Rome is probably wrong. The Anglican and Roman Catholic churches will now move away from the “full visible unity” that they once sought. Not every defector is welcome.

Some traditionalists will indeed leave, and find themselves in a lonely place. But most will remain. Some may try, once again, to overturn the vote. For others there were hints at York, intriguingly, of unofficial moves to offer them the ministry of traditionalist bishops in a non-statutory way. Clarity has won. What is now needed is magnanimity, resolution and a readiness of all factions to work and live together.