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22/07/2006: "Shop for war"

At Farnborough Military Show today to have a look at all the new instruments of death dreamt up by today's young and creative minds (manufacturers were indeed recruiting) - please my Israeli friends, pratice with them as much as you can in Lebanon, with your practice in the field, we'll learn fast enough to go to space soon, as it's the same technology.

At the same time, some of us were demonstrating in Central London against the violence in the Middle East, all enacted with the very same tools that we enjoy so much at the show.

My favourite moments: an American red-neck engineer speaking with pride to an English guy about how his cool anti-radioactive missile displayed was helping the US kill our enemy when he was trying to hide (see in the gallery). Then there was a video clip showing an amazing missile that springs open and showers small explosives across a wide radius of land, wiping out an entire brigade of light-armoured vehicles (field-tested in 'Ay-rak' with limited collateral damage, according to the credits).

And there was also a Command & Control system running live on a big screen, displaying the vicinity of Farnborough airfield. As vehicles drove into the radar's range, they appeared on the system as numbered "enemy", with a window indicating the "suggested doctrine" and how to disable the threat. How cool to press a button and blast this missile- and burger-enjoying crowd...