American blunders

From my open window in Cadogan Gardens I can hear a woman’s lovely voice singing something from Mozart’s Requiem; at least I think it’s Mozart’s oeuvre. One can never go wrong with Wolfie at a hot and brilliant sunny day’s end, especially when the rest of the world’s slobs are out there singing football songs and other such rubbish. God, I find football boring. Even more boring than clay-court tennis. The only team I’m rooting for is Germany, but it has nothing to do with the Wehrmacht. The Germans are playing attacking football, and will pay the price for it, but who cares? Better a German blitzkrieg that ends in tears than an English hold-them-for-ever-after-getting-a-lucky-goal and putting everyone to sleep.

England is a good team which plays very boring football thanks to an extremely boring coach. If Sven makes love the way he teaches football to be played, I feel very sorry for his girls. They must think of many strange things, but obviously not of English football, in order to stay awake while doing it. And while I’m on the subject of football, it is supposedly still a sport. So what were all those Israeli flags protesting about the Iranian presence doing when Iran took the field against Mexico? Israel is not in the tournament. So why bring Middle East politics to Germany during the greatest sporting event in the world? I’ll tell you why. After 39 years of Israeli occupation, Palestinians living under Israel are treated with contempt. For decades Palestinians have been losing their lands and their basic rights — the 1967 border no longer exists, thanks to Israeli development.

The Pentagon people are jubilant right now, having killed Zarqawi, but the Iraqi insurgency is like Hydra, and there’s a hell of a lot of killing to be done if the worst foreign-policy blunder in American history is to be reversed.