Send no flowers

The odious rolexy fake Presidenté Sarko has been on French TV a lot recently. The deaths last Monday of ten French soldiers in Afghanistan had him preening himself in front of the cameras and in church (absurdly crossing himself in front of the altar like shit wouldn't melt in his twisted little gob) and lambasting reporters for daring to ask akward questions about the incident. Like, was it friendly fire that killed the soldiers (some, probably), why did re-enforcements take so long in coming (er, ne demander pas cette question svp).

Some of the troops' relatives refused to meet the tiny turd but no matter - this national week of mourning has been milked for all it was worth by the political class. (This is in no way disrespectful of this blogger to mention this. Any death in war, other than a stray bullet hitting Bush, Brown Sarko etc. cleanly between the eyes is a horrid base thing).

The country wide impostion of sanctimonious mourning stifles the impulse to criticise or ask questions. One feels that the journalists 'daring' to ask Turdko non-sentimental questions was, in fact, a set up. They were instructed to float this insolence to be seen to get a thorough slapping down as a message to the rest of the country.

The message being - this is how it is for the long haul. Permanent war perpetual mourning ask no questions. Shut le fuck up.

And of course, the comparison with the reaction to the deaths of 76 civilians in Afghansitan, a conflict, from this Summer on, whose consequences Sarkozy is now as responsible for as Bush and Blair, could not have been greater. The news, in effect, treated the whole matter with contempt. It flashed up a few times on the ticker at the bottom of the screen but drowned it out with all the soldiers' funeral coverage.

It has to be said, after all, that these were soldiers. Even given what was said above, they at least knew that they were in the front line. The civilians (nameless and relatively unmourned) didn't know what hit them or why. They were just people getting through the day.

Overhead right now, French air force jets screech overhead. The past years when they cruised by, it was a pretty harmless spectacle. Now it is sinister and dark.