‘Boots on the Ground’

Politicians are almost by definition bonkers, but the madness of president Osama (or whatever he’s called) of America has now reached what doctors call the ‘florid’ stage. As the sectarian violence and killings in Iraq provoked by America’s earlier invasion of the country is continuing, he proposes to put matters right by sending 5,000, or is it 50,000, more American soldiers there.

Since the fact seems to have been forgotten or glossed over, I should remind not just the idiot president but others that the basic job of soldiers is to be violent and kill people. But these soldiers will, it seems, be different: they will not wear boots. Or their boots will not be allowed to touch the ground. Or something.

As children, we used to play a game in which you had to get all the way round a room without putting your feet (booted or otherwise) on the floor. If the plan is that the American soldiers in Iraq will just be playing children’s games, it must surely be a good thing. They won’t, of course, be needing to take any weapons with them. And the president has indeed several times talked of his ‘Game Plan’ for Iraq.

Let us hope this marks a radical change in American Foreign Policy, which to date has been to beat the shit out of anyone who wants to lead other than the American Way of Life.

Here, the girls show the troops how to play: