Finishing lines of Jean Giraudoux' wonderful play 'Electre' – reference to the Trojan war, returning from which Electra's father Agamemnon was killed.
La femme Narsès: Comment cela s'appelle-t-il, quand le jour se lève, comme aujourd'hui, et que tout est gâché, que tout est saccagé, et que l'air pourtant se respire, et qu'on a tout perdu, que la ville brûle, que les innocents s'entre-tuent, mais que les coupables agonisent, dans un coin du jour qui se lève ?
Electre : Demande au mendiant. Il le sait.
Le mendiant : Cela a un très beau nom, femme Narsès. Cela s'appelle l'aurore.
English translation:
The woman Narsès: “What is it called, when a day begins, like today, when everything is ruined, everything is plundered, but one still breathes the air, when everything is lost, when the city burns, when the innocents kill each other, but when the guilty agonize, in a corner of a day that is beginning?”
Electra: “Ask the beggar, he knows”.
The beggar: “It has a very beautiful name, woman Narsès. It is called the dawn.”
[1] Afghanistan's resistance movement was born in chaos and, at first, virtually all of its war was waged locally by regional warlords. As warfare became more sophisticated, outside support and regional coordination grew. Even so, the basic units of mujahideen organization and action continued to reflect the highly segmented nature of Afghan society. [… ]
Under Reagan, U.S. support for the mujahideen evolved into an official U.S. foreign policy, known as the Reagan Doctrine, which included U.S. support for anti-Soviet resistance movements in Afghanistan, Angola, Nicaragua, and elsewhere
