On the anniversary of the accidental bombing of a village in Afghanistan in which, ooh, quite a lot of people were killed, a moving tribute to the victims was paid by survivors in front of the world's media. Yeah, right.
It was seven years ago today - well, give or take a month or so - that the navigator a US bomber on a raid against Taliban positions in Helmand province mistook the co-ordinates on his map and unloaded his cargo of bombs on a village where a wedding was taking place. According to survivors, several hundred innocent civilians were killed. And some women. Well, a few dozen at any rate.
As lanterns burned in the stillness of the night, or might have done if the Afghans could have afforded matches to light them with, assuming any of this had happened in the first place, which it obviously didn't, a spokesman for the village of Fuzzywuzzia [Sub - can you check on Wikipedia? Doesn't sound right - Ed.] read out the names of the innocent victims of war one by one.
'Khalid Jalubani, his elder son Tamiz bin Khalid Jalubani, his second son Rafiq bin Khalid Jalubani, er, his second wife, his third wife, er, his mother, one or two daughters, a few old women from the outskirts that were hanging around the tent and wouldn't take no for an answer, their names will be remembered forever, if they were remembered in the first place. We honour them all, to some degree.'
A minute's silence was held as accredited cameramen filmed the dedication of a monument inscribed with - oh look, do I really need to go on or have even the septics worked this one out by now? The Afghan people have vowed to rebuild the village and that this time it will rise two storeys high, as a symbol of their unity in fighting for the freedoms they cherish to dress women in black marquees and shoot anyone they don't like.