Humane Intervention

Remembrance Sunday, particularly in a centenary year, must be among the more stressful events in the calendar of Her Majesty's Government. There is rah-rah to be organised, there are heretics to be criticised, and all dutiful citizens are required to maintain a proper degree of vigilance in denouncing any public figure who fails our forces in thought, word or poppy. Fortunately, the Ministry for Wog-Bombing and Telling Russia What's What has been considerate enough to try and lighten the burden, at least with regard to the festival's ostensible purpose of remembering the victims of war. Last year, partly to demonstrate the disapproval of Her Majesty's Government for head-chopping Islamic fundamentalists who don't happen to belong to the House of Saud, and partly to show that Britain's status as Washington's vassal remains unaffected by mere geopolitical reality, the Royal Air Force rained down security and stability upon the Syrian city of Raqqa. However, in over two hundred opportunities it managed to avoid harming a single civilian, whether because British bombs can distinguish terrorists from nice people or because the RAF limited its activities to property damage. This of course means that the work of remembrance on Remembrance Sunday has been correspondingly reduced, leaving all the more time out of the two minutes to concentrate on the important things.