Careless talk costs lives. Be like dad: keep mum. It's a long way to Tipperary. Tally-ho! Dig for victory. Your country needs you. It looks like you will see Berlin before I do. Put that light out!

You may not have noticed, but there's a war going on. And war, a bit like love, changes everything. Attached are some top-of-the-head ramblings:

• forces from the "coalition" were reported to have reached the outskirts of Basra earlier today, but were disappointed to find the park-and-ride closed due to bomb damage
• vital to maintaining any semblance of cleanliness in the desert is a supply of baby wipes
• any mention of the port of Umm Qasr goes straight round my reflex arch and causes me to quietly sing the Oom-Pah-Pah song from Oliver
• troops are always 50 miles south of Baghdad
• Guardian mentioned the Gulf War Drinking Game: eg have a sip every time Bush uses the term "cradle of democracy" (cf Withnail & I)

• used to be lots of A10 Thunderbolt aircraft stationed here in sleepy East Anglia; now, like a JG Ballard short story, the base is abandoned and the runway covered with weeds
• gotta have a lyric:

  This ain't no party, this ain't no disco
  This ain't no fooling around
  — Talking Heads, Life During Wartime

• a handy cut-out-and-keep super-succinct timeline from the BBC's website:
  • March 20 - war begins
  • March 21 - war protests / UK forces
  • March 22 - bombing
  • March 23 - resistance
  • March 24 - Iraq suffers
  • March 25 - advances
  • March 26 - market hit
  • March 27 - UK forces / a week on / protests
  • March 28 - anguish
  • March 29 - market blast
• thank goodness for local news - no Iraq heading on the Evening Star posters this evening, only the fact that George Burley has landed the manager's job at Derby County
• I'm told that Saddam has his breakfast when Tariq Aziz

Can't be long until VI Day, can it?

Be seeing you!

Ed