Meanwhile in Baghdad - Battle-weary Iraqis resigned to war from the Australian paper The Age:

"I have seen two big wars, many battles, much fighting," said Khalil Ibrahim, 35. "We have passed through more difficult times than these and, no, I am not afraid."

Mr Ibrahim was in the Iraqi army for 11 years and owns an antiques shop near Jamhuriya street in old Baghdad.

An air raid shelter near his home provides the only protection from the most powerful air force in the world. But Mr Ibrahim has no intention of using it. "If they bomb us I will stay in my house," he said.

His preparations for war amounted to nothing more than stockpiling food and water.

Nearby, Amer Subhi, 41, had taken one additional precaution. He had bought some candles. "Our electricity might be cut off," he said. But Mr Subhi had not troubled to discover whether there was an air raid shelter near his home. "I am not afraid," he said simply.

"If they bomb us I will stay in my house" - that's how it tended to be in London in the Blitz. Shelters just mean you die in company, why bother?

And there's a London Doubledecker bus in the middle of the picture that goes with that story, and a dome in the background - a mosque, not StvPauls, but it all feels very familiar somehow.