OCCUPIED COUNTRY

Help !

Hands up all those who think the rest of the world should bail out the USA ? Seems that the head of the American-led administration in Iraq thinks we should.

If "the rest of the world" do help out, does that mean they'll re-rename "freedom fries" french fries ? Does that mean they'll say sorry for all the gung-ho abuse they subjected those parts of the world that disagreed with them to ? Does that mean they're finally going to accept that attempting to bulldoze countries into invading others and insisting that going in - guns blazing - is the ONLY answer isn't ? Does that mean they're finally going to start acting with humilty ?

No ?

Thought not. Y'can pay it for it yourself then.

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Well my mother and Father have today set off on a 5 day tour of the Rhine Valley. It's a present we bought them for their 50th wedding anniversary. I'va had to teach my father a mantra to repeat while he's over there though. It goes:-

Remember, the war is over ! Remember, the war is over ! Remember, the war is over ! Remember, the war is over !...........

It's hard for us Baby-boomers to understand just how much those who lived through a World War are still affected by it. A few years ago, Dearest and I took them to Paris for a day. I worked out a route to take that was achievable on foot - with a short trip on one of the Seine water buses. Starting off in the Place de la Concorde we strolled down the Champs Elysees. Everywhere my parents looked they imagined SS officers and wave after wave of Nazi Stormtroopers lining the street. It astonished us that they still thought like that after all these years. We certainly hadn't realised just how much those days still informed their current thinking.

We sat on an old Art Nouveau bench in a small park:

"You could just imagine a Nazi Officer sitting here couldn't you ?" My father said.

My mother agreed. Dearest and myself just sort of mumbled agreement.

In the end, what should have been a great day out became a weird trip into the past of two young people born in the twenties and thirties. One in Manchester the other in Sunderland. Strange that a city they had never visted in their lives before was full of so many memories for them both.

Can't help but think it's going to "kick off" in the Rhine Valley over the next few days.