peripathetic

Someone just stepped on the gas.
Another soldier - he could not have been much out of his teens - spoke to his father: 'It's mad here. There's nothing but desert.' Then the soldier paused after his father asked him a question. 'Yeah, a little bit,' he replied softly. 'Yeah, I'm a little bit afraid.'

From The Observer's extra supplement on the final buildup to war in Iraq comes this report on how the British soldiers in camp near Iraq are gearing up for the inevitable. 'The inevitable?' I hear you say. 'Bush, Blair and Aznar are meeting in the Azores today, so nothing's decided yet.'

Hmm. Well, be that as it may, UK and US troops have been supplied with 'needle pens', powerful injection 'guns' which are intended to be used to limit the effects of nerve gas - an equipment issue which is only given at the very last minute before combat. They carry their gas masks to the showers, and are feeling jittery.

A reporter says efforts in Europe must continue apace to contain the world's best-known bent copper (Bush), but when you look at recent world events, and the diplomatic history between the UK and US, you might be forgiven for thinking that the rift will never heal.

And back in Iraq, Saddam has been somewhat left out of the recent reports. Can he really do anything to inflame the situation once war starts?