The only channels the television set at the Birthday Palace in downtown Tikrit seemed able to receive were regional variations of the Armed Forces Network. I watched an American police drama as I waited for a convoy to take me back to Camp Britney. It was interrupted about every ten minutes or so by patriotic messages or practical advice for soldiers. Paul Newman appeared to endorse a scheme to provide temporary lodgings for the families of service personnel who were hospitalised, there was a brief focus on the beauty and uniqueness of the state of Texas, a couple of historical plugs on people and places that helped make America great, a year-end message of support from the Secretary of the Air Force, and a reminder of the civilian benefits of military research (in this case the GPS system). And in the police drama they got the bad guy in the end.