What has Bond been up to?

Ian Cooper lays it down....

"As a British taxpayer I have paid good taxes to HM Government MI6 to fund James Bond's casino expense account, Saville Row suits, and gadgets from Q division. So I have one question: Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein. How could Bond have let it get to this state? Time was you could rely on the 00 branch to nip any mad dictator's evil schemes for mass murder and world domination in the bud. Removing WMD from insane leaders was a particular speciality of his IIRC.

"Now sure Osama does not spend a lot of time in the world's top casinos or have any beautiful womenfolk who Bond could seduce (or even a cat) but surely there was an in somewhere. And Saddam'sevil sons certainly seem to enjoy the international playboy lifestyle. Surely there was an opening there for Bond to win his way past the evil henchman such as Chemical Ali and take the big guy out (preferably in his private jet).

"Of course I fully expected members of the SAS to have to abseil into Saddam's WMD facility or Osama's mountaintop fortress, but the full-scale deployment of troops can only suggest one thing: Bond has let us down.

"I knew things were off to a shaky start when the put Dame Judi Dench in charge of the SIS. She is an actress for crying out loud. What was the PM thinking?

"Perhaps we need to consider pensioning the old fella off and getting some new blood into the 00 branch."


Also, A Colder War is a damn fine novelette, available online in its entirety.