Extraordinary..
Australian divers are at work in Umm Qasr harbour.. clearing away mines hopefully faster than government boats can lay them..
And for the first time.. dolphins are working with the military.. to sniff these mines out.. so to speak.. so the divers can deal with them..
Not to say dolphins hadn't worked with humans before.. but this is the first time in combat conditions..
Meanwhile.. back on the road to Baghdad.. there's a report for a massive firefight east of the city.. In that weather.. one can only speculate..
By the way..those two British tankers killed today.. were fired on by another British tank..
It was dark.. and fifty Ba'ath tanks were staging a breakout..
The talk at the pub this evening was subdued.. There's almost universal amazement that so few have lost their lives in this so far.. on both sides.. Not that the regulars are looking for massive body counts.. very much the opposite in fact.. but the precision and restraint.. is unprecidented..
If we're not carefull.. war will revert to the old conventions..
Like the Shannon and the Chesapeake..