Ground Force

This week the Pentagon publicly appealed for help in “defeating difficult targets” – announcing a competition for ordinary Americans to come up with snappy ideas on ways of thwarting the terrorists.  “We’re open to ideas from just about everybody,” said Pentagon spokesman Glenn Flood….

Our current prime minister may have got wind of the Pentagon’s novelty competition for lateral ideas, because I’m sure I heard him saying that Britain will be contributing our very own Ground Force.  So the Americans are sending in thousands of highly armed marines and we’re contributing a BBC gardening programme.  Mind you, once the senior clerics in the Taliban are confronted with the bra-less Charlie Dimmock jumping about, the regime will probably cave in overnight.

                   - John O’Farrell writing for The Guardian, Answers on a postcard please, 27 September 2001