Read any good wars lately?

Spotted a couple of unusual items on the web in the last few days to do with the American military (and hello to you as you no doubt monitor blogs for key words like 'American', 'military', 'Allah' and 'Penguin'). Dave Langford's Ansible had a piece on required reading lists for the Marine Corps (nicely graded for various ranks). Apparently the list was changed a little after 9-11. I suppose we should just be glad that they do insist even the grunts of the forces should read something...

Then another article which appeared in various news sources - one on the BBC was 1st April, so I thought it was a joke, but it has appeared in various other places since -although it could still be a joke. At least I hope it is... the US military are looking for someone to tender to produce a propoganda comic for consumption in the Middle East. Perhaps it isn't a joke since there is this information on a government site about federal business opportunities. Hmmm, maybe I should write a superhero comic for them? All about a superhero called Sarchasm, who uses his mighty powers of satire to overthrow evil regimes and rid the world of weapons of mass destruction, aided by his bullet-time cats in ninja suits, fighting for Truth, Justice and the Sarcastic way of life.

Of course Sarchasm would tackle such evils wherever he found it, so the current US administration may be in trouble there - something tells me they may not approve a comic book where ninja cats take out the Secret Service while Sarchasm takes over the mic at the State of the Union address to tell it like it is. Would go down well in the Middle East though, and that is what they're looking for after all...