CNN has been playing -- all day now, it seems -- shaky videophone coverage of the 7th Cavalry racing across empty Iraqi desert. With inane commentary from Aaron Brown and Co.
It's like the worst video game you've ever seen. The Nintendo War? More like the Colecovision War.
I take it back. Space Invaders was definitely more exciting.
It reminds me of a board wargame I saw advertised years ago:
Dieppe.
You'll remember that battle? An amphibious raid to a) see if it was possible to capture a fortified port; b) give the Canucks something to do.
Well, a) it wasn't; and b) it sure did.
A promising simulation nonetheless. 5,000 troops storm the beach and spend what must have been a truly miserable day huddling behind a seawall, pinned down by machinegun fire.
The only interesting way to play it would have been as the German, I guess, industriously rounding up prisoners.
There've been far more interesting battles in Canadian military history -- Vimy Ridge, Ortona, Kaopong.
I suppose, though, that it's won the prestigious Sheila Copps Bleeding Tampon with Maple Clusters medal. Dieppe: The Failure Of White Men To Suppress Their Racist Patriarchal Nature, Or At Least Kill A Lot Of, Uh, Other White Guys.