Absent Combat Bins

Combat

Hayley bought me a pair of ‘fashionable’ trousers, which look like combats, but if worn by soldiers would result in them leaving a trail of kit behind them.

The pockets are totally inadequate, being made of various Velcro flaps, poppers and plastic zips which come apart at the most inopportune moments and are incapable of holding anything; my mobile, wallet, change and keys keep falling out.

They have a button fly – the type found on 501 jeans. Personally I detest button flies as they are a pain when you want a pee and you invariably end up dribbling all over your leg.

If that isn’t bad enough, the waistband is held together, not by a button, but by a popper of all things. Undo the buttons to have a pee and the popper can’t help but come undone too, resulting in said trousers falling to my feet in the gents’ urinals.

Hayley said they are a nod to combats – more like a nod to ill conceived design.


Bin Laden

Rumour has it that Bin Laden was identified when seen waving his union flag while watching the royal wedding on Sky in a pub in Islamabad.

Can’t help feeling that, just as al Qaeda is becoming irrelevant in the middle east, the Yanks killing him is going to turn him into a recruitment poster-boy. Martyrs have this effect.

In my humble opinion, the strategy should have been for the Americans to bide their time and effect a kill from inside the organisation when the time was right, thus promoting the idea that no-one is safe, even from their own. Much greater psychological impact!

Strange his body was not put on display. Perhaps he’s still alive and this is a ruse to smoke him out. And on the 3rd day……

Whether he goes down in history as an evil genius or an heroic resistance fighter is solely a matter of perspective (and who writes the history). There are two sides to every story, depending on where you stand. To the resistance fighter and guerrilla, civilians are legitimate targets as they vote in the governments whose actions are being resisted. The electorate must therefore be held responsible for the governments they vote into power and cannot be immune from the consequences of their actions.


Absence

Chairman Bill will be absent for a couple of days – he’s going out of the country (somewhere in the middle east) for a job interview and hopes to return with a new position - and no, it’s not leader of al Qaeda.