Draw Breath

Well, nobody can say that the Taliban don't indulge in highly symbolic behaviour. When I saw the footage from the latest attempt on Hamid Karzai's life yesterday (not his first narrow escape, although it was, as Channel 4 points out, the first in Kabul), I ws struck by the parallels with the assassination of Anwar el-Sadat in 1981, down to the use of explosions to disorient the bodyguard.

Obviously, I wasn't the only person with such thoughts. Indeed, as Channel 4 news had it last night, the soldiers in the stadium weren't armed, so it may be that the government doesn't even trust its own army (trained by us of course) to refrain from taking pot-shots at the President.

Still, at least Bush has refrained from declaring victory in Afghanistan for the last few years. Amazingly, he actually hasn't declared victory there since 2004, avoiding the problems associated with his annual declaration of victory in Iraq.

What a mess.