A little while ago I bumped into a guy who was involved in battlefield re-enactment. There's a few of them around - this isn't the first time I've encountered re-enactors. Dressing up in historical costumes and pretending to fight? Isn;'t that a little sad? Well... That depends on your viewpoint.

Re-enactment is after all a practical study of how people conducted themselves in times gone by and for that matter they sometimes get heavily involved in historical research. In an era when the written word is no longer enough, such a visual representation of real events might not be entirely 100% accurate, but it certainly conveys the imagery and who knows? If it inspires youngsters to stop daubing walls with spray paint, isn't that a good cause?

Anyhow, I had a fantastic conversation about things military and learned a few things from him. Compare that with a chap I spoke to once before. He made some comment about the Romans being the best soldiers ever - an idea I couldn't allow to go unchallenged - and immediately spotting my military surplus trousers the off-duty soldier dismissed me with "Come back when you've done something."

In the news this morning is a piece about the inquest into an incident in Afghanistan, where a rogue policeman attacked a squad of british soldiers. This policeman used automatic weapons on his supposed allies and perhaps not suprisingly, the story focuses on how one soldier was hit and played dead.

It would be very easy to point a finger and claim that the soldier playing dead was not entirely heroic. I do recognise that he was in a dangerous situation and without the means to effectively combat his enemy, his survival instinct proved stronger than foolhardiness. I don't actually blame him for that despite the current era of Cameron's Heroes, a status which I notice some servicement are starting to enjoy.

As for my military surplus trousers, they're on sale in the high street. I have no guilt or fantasies about them. As for the soldier who sneered, come back when you've learned something. As for Cameron's insistence of heroism, yes, some of them are, in a very real sense. Reward the heroes please, not the 'also-rans' in their wake. There's nothing worse than a uniform that expects hero worship, especially when some of those wearing it are behaving disrespectfully toward the very people they want respect from.

Why Was Wonder Woman Wasted?

Now there's an alliterative heading. Another news item tells me that a remake of Wonder Woman has been axed. Anyone who saw the original with Lynda Carter either would probably wonder why anyone would feel the need to destroy their own careers with it.

Thing is, I know that throughout history there have been women who were at the forefront of military action. I recall an indian woman who led her tribe to success against their rivals. A female samurai who was genuinely feared by male colleagues. A lady who took to the life of a knight in the middle ages. Boudicca screaming revenge as her chariot charges pell-mell toward the roman legions. And so forth.

How easy is it for an actress, however athletic and blessed with attractive curves, to really suggest a woman who lives by violence? The only option is to put her in a skimpy costume and give her lots of wisecracks. But then, it all gets a bit moribund very quickly. Extremely quickly in this case, having dropped the series before it was made.