Carl, a 72-year-old former Melody Maker journalist from Bradford, said that during the blitz in London they all used to walk around the streets, carrying on with their business with a kind of fatalism. He said one day he heard a roar and then, low enough that he could see the pilot, a plane flew over bearing Swastikas on the wing. He said he flung himself to the ground as it passed, not realising till the danger had gone that it was strafing the street he was walking down.

Carl has been to Palestine as well, and talked about how, despite the curfews, people go out and do what they need to do. Foot patrols are rare, and tank patrols can be heard from a mile away, so there is plenty of warning to take cover, and life goes on. It's not good, it's not glamorous, but they survive. National Geographic Man was adamant. I cynically suggested that he was probably right, but perhaps his knowledge didn't extend much further than the immediate vicinity of the Al Rasheed Hotel, the international journalists' ghetto.

This time, there are peace campaigners here from Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Congo, Chad, Nigeria, Sudan, South Africa, Mauritius, Japan, China, India, Argentina, Greece, Russia, Estonia, the Balkans, the Czech Republic, Germany, France, Britain, Ireland, Canada, the U.S., Australia: bring me an atlas and I'll try to find you a country that's not represented.