Australia’s brief rally in that pointless nineteenth-century game — the Afghan war, not the Ashes though the latter term fits — got army barmy Tim Blair all excited:
Scots sniper Corporal Christopher Reynolds discusses a successful one-mile shot on another Taliban leader:
‘He dropped straight away into the arms of a fighter behind him. The guy just panicked and dropped the leader and ran away. He had been given a lead sleeping tablet. I was quite proud of that shot — it is the longest recorded kill in Afghanistan. I am going to use that fact as a chat-up line in the pub when I get back home.’
It’s been a great week for the good guys.
Wow! A mile-long shot! Another eleven thousand nine-hundred and ninety-nine, and they’d be in range to hit Tim himself — or any of the journos who spruiked the war from well behind the lines. That’d really burst Tim’s bubble. Or burst something.
I honestly can’t fault Cpl Reynolds for using his sniper skills to get a leg over. But he should be more honest with his paramours before taking them home. He doesn’t hold the record for longest recorded kill in Afghanistan. The honors goes to another corporal – a Canuck called Rob Furlong – who felled someone at the distance of 2.5 km in 2002.