Paul Moorcraft, author of Shooting the Messenger and Inside the Danger Zones, knows what he would be drawing, were he a cartoonist...
The recent major attack on Kabul prompted various TV interviews with your correspondent. On Sky News I compared Afghanistan with Vietnam. The Kabul attacks were similar to the Tet offensive, a military defeat for the north, but a political coup that led to final victory. I insisted it was time for the West to get out of Afghanistan much sooner than planned. Otherwise the US ambassador might have to fly from the embassy roof in a chopper as in Saigon.
I also likened the Taliban attacks to an IRA spectacular.
The Daily Mirror picked up my comments two days later, when I tried to make the domestic audience understand how significant the Taliban onslaught was. Some Afghan MPs defended their parliament building by fighting back with their own Kalashnikov rifles. I suggested it was like Eric Pickles or Nick Clegg wielding AKS to protect Westminster, perhaps against the Real IRA.
It might have been a simile too far, but I did hope that a political cartoonist would be tempted to portray Pickles ─ in a Rambo headband, pockets stuffed with non-VAT pasties ─ charging some armed Jihadist or Irish nutters.