If I thought there was any area of conflict, I would never have agreed to serve.

This is not a conflict, and it's unfortunate he gets drawn into it.

It doesn't surprise me that this conflict is coming to a head, given the old-boy mentality that still pervades over there. They are still in a bit of a honeymoon period. Everybody knows the transition from a clubby atmosphere to being a public company isn't going to be easy. I think people are willing to cut them some slack for a little while, but that's not going to last for long.

It's time to bring down the curtain on this ridiculous farce. This conflict revealed a profound regime crisis.

We are split people. For myself, half of me wishes to sit quietly with legs crossed, letting the things that are beyond my control wash over me. But the other half wants to fight a holy war. Jihad! And certainly we could argue this out in the street, but I think, in the end, your past is not my past and your truth is not my truth and your solution---it is not my solution. So I do not know what it is you would like me to say. Truth and firmness is one suggestion, though there are many people you can ask if that answer does not satisfy. Personally, my hope lies in the last days. The prophet Muhammad---peace be upon Him!---tells us that on the Day of Resurrection everyone will be struck unconscious. Deaf and dumb. No chitchat. Tongueless. And what a bloody relief that will be.

Fairy tales begin with conflict because we all begin our lives with conflict. We are all misfit for the world, and somehow we must fit in, fit in with other people, and thus we must invent or find the means through communication to satisfy as well as resolve conflicting desires and instincts.