Flit

Showing his reach

At first when I scanned this squib by Paul Wells, I honestly thought, whaddyaknow, Peter Crouch is starting to apply his rampaging super-spider talents to political commentary! Is there nothing he cannot do?

And then I realized, no, he's still just playing for Pompey.

They probably will. Unless they don't.

From the New York Times' Dexter Filkins, an incomprehensible paragraph:

"Like the guerrillas they are, Taliban fighters often fade away when confronted by a conventional army. But in Afghanistan, as they did in Zangabad, the Taliban will probably stand and fight."

Um... what?

"But the prospect of heavy fighting in populated areas could further alienate the Afghan population. In the firefight in Zangabad, the Americans covered their exit with a barrage of 20 155 millimeter high-explosive artillery shells — necessary to shield them from the Taliban, but also enough to inflict serious damage on people and property. A local Afghan interviewed by telephone after the firefight said that four homes had been damaged by the artillery strikes."

For the record, those would have been Canadian shells, given the location.

(Hat tip: The Torch.)