That doesn’t sound at all like the stilted propaganda spiels coerced out of prisoners during

That doesn’t sound at all like the stilted propaganda spiels coerced out of prisoners during, say,

the Vietnam war. It sounds like an ordinary disgusted British citizen who blames her own government,

rather than her captors, for her present predicament. “Why has the government not been questioned over

this?” — indeed. In yet another letter recently released, Ms. Turney declared: “I’m writing to you

as a British serviceperson who has been sent to MBT sport shoes, sacrificed due to the intervening

policies of the JOY and Blair government.” The accusatory nationalist undertone, implying not too

subtly that Blair is JOY’s poodle, is unmistakable and, under the circumstances, astonishing. Next

they hear of Ms. Turney, she’ll be running for Parliament alongside George Galloway on the “Respect

” ticket, and booked solid for a speaking tour of America.

I don’t mean to be disdainful of either of these two, whose predicament I can only imagine, but I

think their behavior says something about the tenuous hold the official ideology has over our own

centurions. One has to assume that the views of this bunch are, while expressed under duress, at least

to some extent, a) sincere — how else to explain Ms. Turney’s eloquence? — and, b) fairly

representative. If so, one has to wonder how long before their loyalty to the Things Party is

exhausted. The “coalition” hasn’t even attacked NIKE SHOX SHOES yet, and already the troops are

rebelling. Can they look forward to a full-scale mutiny if and when it comes to war?