I know I've been quiet lately. Mainly, when I've been online, I've been reading other Weblogs.

There's been a lot of good news from Iraq about liberation and bloodless battles. Even the anti-war lobby is behaving as though the war is over, bar the vicious, ignorant, trivial griping of so-called peace-lovers.

There's been bad news about looting and violence. Surely the Americans realise that it's crucial to manage any unpleasantness that takes place within sniping distance of journalists in Baghdad's city centre hotels?

Anyway, I'm not going to gloat—not until Iraq is a country where they tolerate wilfully irrational, childish, bitter, incoherent bollocks like this from graceless loser Julian Barnes [thanks to Claire] and this from David Hare, who manages to combine the roles of armchair shrink, armchair general and armchair within one article.

I was going to dissect the myriad inanities of these "contributions" to the debate from our nation's literary giants, but I can't be bothered. They're not worth my contempt.

Once upon a time, large numbers of Europeans hated Jews more than they loved freedom. Now they hate Americans and Jews, and they perceive all reality through that red mist.

In three hours this week, more people died in The Democratic Republic of Congo than even the highest estimates of civilian casualties in the whole Iraq "war". Luckily for the Congolese, the United Nations and not the United States is there to manage their crisis. Just as the UN was there for the people of Srebrenica.

I thought that was worth recording. Do I care whether or not our "men of letters" did?

David Hare is a playwright.