Today bombs will fall on Syria... but of course you knew that already. And you also probably knew that this week our elected representatives voted for it in the House of Commons and also that that nice Hilary Benn, who was so mesmerisingly brilliant in swaying a few of his party's ditherers with a passionate pro-bombing speech, is favourite to replace Jeremy Corbyn as Labour Party leader. Isn't that nice for him?
British planes were taking off from Cyprus with ISIL/DAESH targets in their sights before Hilary had a chance to sign a few autographs and probably enjoy a nice brandy in one of the many subsidised bars in the Palaces of Westminster. We were quickly told our boys successfully hit an ISIL-controlled eastern oilfield in the east of Syria. Cut off their means of funding. Makes perfect sense doesn't it?
So war has begun, yet for the people of Syria that 'pivotal Commons vote' means nothing. They have been subjected to more than four years of this already. First it was their own army, then came the Americans, then the Russians waded in and last month the French.
And now it is us.
But if you are a nine-year-old Syrian child who just happens to live in the northern territory of Raqqa and a bomb destroys your house, or the bridge that allows your father to walk to work, or your local school where your mum helps out cobbling together lunches or the hospital where your uncle is a porter, you are not really bothered about the country of origin. You are just deeply sad and bewildered. You wonder what you and your family have done to deserve this.
David Cameron would tell you he led the calls for bombing raids to help such a child and all those who 'have suffered under the brutal Assad regime' or 'to protect Britain from attacks from ISIL barbarians'.
Both are just lies.
Our Prime Minister cares as much for the children of Syria as Blair did for the children of Iraq. Sometimes your supposed friends expose your falsehoods inadvertently. After the first Iraq War, soon-to-be American foreign secretary Madeline Albright admitted the death of half a million Iraqi children because of American-led sanctions was a price worth paying for putting the squeeze on Saddam. Just a few weeks after the 2003 Iraq War started, American Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told a gaggle of American journalists that the 'weapons of mass destruction' argument was just an excuse. The planning for the conflict had been concluded before the smoke had cleared at the site of the fallen Twin Towers almost two years earlier.
Wolfowitz's words alluded to the real aims which were clarified to the world in no uncertain terms by US Army General Wesley Clark in 2001. In a speech made in San Francisco the one-time NATO Supreme Allied Commander recounted a Donald Rumsfeld memo. Clark candidly admitted the long-term aim was "to attack and destroy the governments in seven countries in five years. We're going to start with Iraq," said Clark. "And then we're going to move to Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran." Clark added that the neocons' ultimate aim was "to destabilise the Middle East; turn it upside down; make it under our control."
Clark also recalled a conversation he had had with Wolfowitz in 1991 when he was told: "One thing we did learn (from the first Iraq war) is that we can use our military in the region, in the Middle East, and the Soviets won't stop us. And we've got about five or 10 years to clean up those old Soviet regimes--Syria, Iran, Iraq--before the next great superpower comes on to challenge us." By 'clean up' Wolfowitz meant 'play by our rules', the model for which is epitomised by the American relationship with Saudi Arabia, that bastion of democratic accountability and tolerance.
The Saudis have also taken part in bombing raids in Syria although they are now distracted by daily attacks on Yemen. What... you didn't know? Funny that!
The Saudis also fund ISIL, whose fundamentalist brand of Islam chimes very much with the House of Saud. They are natural allies - they both certainly like a good beheading - except they aren't. Much in the same way as ISIL was created by NATO countries when we armed and equipped them in the fight against Assad. So we know what firepower we will face in these latest bombing raids... we just have to check our own inventories.
Much has been made of the 70,000 'moderate Saudis' who currently control tiny parts of the country - another smokescreen. It is also important to explain that the Russians are bombing them too because they are still allied with Assad. Moscow's involvement also indicates how the stakes of the game are being raised. It's why the Turks shot down a Russian jet... it's all getting really serious now. Wolfowitz's dominoes did not fall as fast as he and his friends initially hoped and there is one left standing - Iran.
Iran is the line in the sand for Russia and China yet it's what everything has been leading up to for the past two decades. It's the nightmare of nightmares... World War Three by proxy.
Last night's vote was another step towards the oblivion Washington war planners have been talking about for 25 years. Cameron and his mob are the latest in a fine tradition of gutless and willing British government accomplices in this incomprehensible and chilling plan. Al-qaeda, ISIL, DAESH etc etc... next year it will be something else to scare us into going along with it.
But, remember, you're not supposed to know that.