Matt Buck's Hack Cartoons

Well, it's another glorious victory in the war on terror - our apparently main adversary in Iraq has been oblitterated by two 500 pound bombs dropped from an F16 - or two.

Was I the only one who found it depressing, and not a little instructive that at no stage was it possible for anyone on foot to get to the man and therefore air power was the only way to do him in? Three years after the liberation and we are bombing still.

What does that tell us about the state of the countryside and how the US, British and Iraqi forces are having to move around it? Makes you think doesn't it?

Oh and the first Brit has just been killed in the massive deployment of troops in Southern Afghanistan. I think there will be a lot more of them. if you are interested in the persistence of history, here are a few links aboiut previous British expeditions to this part of the world.

Tellingly, a good few of them have ended in something close to disaster - and I can't see much reason why this one wil go very differently.

http://www.britishbattles.com/second-afghan-war/maiwand.htm

There's a memorial to the many men of the 66th regiment who were killed at Maiwand in Forbury gardens, Reading.

http://gallery.future-i.com/England/parks/pic:maiwand-lion/