A more public Idaho

I guess that citizens of the state do not relish publicity, which must be one of the reasons for Carole King, who with her then husband and fellow Brooklynite Gerry Goffin wrote the sound track to my early working life, has settled there. Shortly after You've got a Friend was shown on BBC-4, the Indy published a report from Hailey, Idaho, the home-town of Bowe Bergdahl. Apparently, the homecoming of the army sergeant recently released by the Taliban is being played down.

Stories are emerging that Bergdahl had lost faith in the US mission in Afghanistan and was not at his post when captured. He is said to have been more fluent in Pashtu than English at the time of his release. Clearly, he must answer to the charge of desertion in the appropriate court, but I trust that after any action which is taken against him he can act as a guide to Afghanistan for ordinary Americans, much as Rory Stewart MP has for this country.