“Soldiers from your country in a war whose aims you support” You are mistaken on both counts, Dawud.

“The 500 000 Iraqis who died between the first and second Gulf wars” died as a direct result of Saddam’s policies and most of the 300,000 who died since the invasion of Iraq have been killed by other Iraqis. One of the reasons I oppposed the invasion was because I thought something like that would happen if the murderous repression exercised by Saddam and the baathists was removed.

I was speaking about the tragedy that you put between quotes “When they…spray bullets at a car for driving a bit too fast near a checkpoint”, which you thought made the soldiers good traffic wardens. I would agree the roads are dangerous in England or anywhere else, but perhaps you’re making fun of other people’s deaths because thinking about the inhumanity of people dieing, by soldiers from your country in a war whose aims you support, makes you uncomfortable.

Perhaps you’ve already forgotten the 500 000 Iraqis who died between the first and second Gulf wars, or the more than 300 000 who’ve died since the invasion of 2003… but the Iraqis haven’t, I can assure you…

And if you have an uncomfortable conscience, forgive me if I think that that’s a good thing.

Whimsical? Perhaps, Dawud. However motorists directly kill about a million people a year worldwide- rather more than all the terrorists and miltary combined- and they’d kill many more if they hadn’t intimidated others into letting them have possession of the road without argument.

I do think that Iraqis have long memories, and there will be a time when far more grevious payments will be exacted by Arabs, along the lines of 9/11… and trust me, that gives me no feeling of pleasure or amusement, just remorse.