Western soldiers deployed along the dusty ridges and rocky outcrops of southern Helmand to defend democracy against the turbaned terrorism of the local Taliban can rest content in the knowledge that they have God on their side.

This has been confirmed by Trijicon, a US company which has just supplied the British Ministry of Defence with new rifle gun-sights for its troops in Afghanistan. Each bears the etched inscription: “JN8:12”.
That’s verse 12 of chapter 8 of the Gospel of St. John which, I don’t need to tell Hot Press readers, proclaims: “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
A great comfort no doubt in the millisecond pause between the roadside erupting and eternity’s shrug.
A Trijicon spokesman explained: “As part of our faith and our belief in service to our country, Trijicon has put scripture references on our products for more than two decades. As long as we have men and women in danger, we will continue to do everything we can to provide them with both state of the art technology and the never-ending support and prayers of a grateful nation.”
Have to stop those kill-crazy religious fanatics over there or they’ll be imposing their extremist ideas over here.

“O wad some Power the giftie gie us/To see oursels as ithers see us!”
It was the seminal (very) Ulster-Scots folk-singer Rabbie Burns who wrote that. And he was right. Always instructive to discover what outsiders really think of us. So here’s a snippet from a transcript which has just come to hand of a July 1974 telephone conversation between world-famous war-monger US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and his faithful sidekick, British Home Secretary James Callaghan:
Kissinger: You know, one respect in which all the humanitarians and liberals and socialists were wrong in the last century was when they thought that mankind didn’t like war.
Callaghan: Yes.
Kissinger: It’s regrettable, but...
Callaghan: I came to that conclusion a few years ago when I saw the position in Northern Ireland, Henry.
Kissinger: They love it.

The misuse of drugs claimed yet another life when the body of Kieran Doherty was found dumped on the Braehead Road outside Derry on February 24, stripped, bound and with two bullets in his head. The Real IRA said he’d been one of their members who had become involved in a “cannabis factory.”
The brutal manner of his killing sparked outrage in Derry. I spoke alongside Kieran’s sister, Leanne, at a rally in the city centre in solidarity with the family on the day after his funeral. She said: “We will never fill the gap which has been left in our lives. But we will keep Kieran’s memory alive, and we will defend his reputation. And for as long as we live, we will keep asking why. Like the families of so many others who have lost their lives, we want the truth. We don’t want to have to wait for years for it. We want the truth now.”
Part of the truth is that hysteria about drugs can create the atmosphere in which armed vigilantes believe they can get away with doing a decent man to death. While the vast majority of the Derry people I know are implacably angry at Kieran’s RIRA killers, it’s not unusual to hear a tentative reservation – “Mind you, something has to be done about these drugs dealers destroying our children.”
On the night before the rally, I watched Stuart Clark trying to talk sense about legal highs on The Frontline to an audience dominated by individuals whose ignorance of the subject was matched only by the dogmatism of their views. Like people unable to acknowledge any distinction between a bottle of shandy and a pint of poitin. Or a sachet of Spice and a packet of smack.
Nowhere in our mainstream media, our educational or health systems, in the political arena North or South, anywhere, can we detect a serious sustained effort to provide accurate information about the chemical composition, the effects, and the relative dangers of mood-altering substances.
Young people buying legal highs “don’t know what’s in this stuff”, complained one chap on The Frontline with a florid face indicating a possible problem with the addictive killer drug alcohol. So he was totally opposed to regulation...
There’s irrationality of this sort everywhere. It’s not only in Derry it can lead to death.
I wrote last issue about my friend Ray Coyle, shot three times in his shop on Waterloo Street by a gang of ex-Provos styling themselves Republican Action Against Drugs. He’d been selling legal highs. I saw him for the first time since release from hospital, hobbling along in Kieran’s funeral cortege, and asked if he was thinking of opening up shop again.
“I don’t know. Most people are getting their stuff through the internet now anyway. Are they going to start targeting postmen for delivering it?”
Probably.

Quote of the Week. Sunday Indo February 21. Editor Aengus Fanning interviews just-sacked Limerick gobshite Willie O’Dea: “First off, my commiserations. Not only are you one of the outstanding politicians in the country, and you are one of the best across the board in all the parties, but if I may say so you are a very fine journalist too.”