Holy smokes!

This one is just crying out for the Carl Spackler treatment:

Veterans condemn El-Alamein golf resort plan

The desert battlefield of El-Alamein, where Field Marshal Montgomery's Desert Rats famously defeated Rommel's Afrika Korps in the Second World War, is being developed into a golf resort by Egyptian businessmen.

Developers say the project will rid the region of millions of mines which have remained since 1942
British war veterans reacted angrily yesterday after hearing of the plans to turn the historic site into a complex including luxury villas.

Speculators on Egypt's north coast believe the region will provide some of the best golf courses in the world.

Not only will massive bomb and mine craters provide extremely challenging fairways but, say developers, the project will be the perfect excuse to get rid of millions of mines which have blighted the region since 1942.

"The worst ones are the Riegel mines placed by Field Marshal Erwin Rommel as he was fleeing to Libya," said local mayor Mustafa Abada.

"They are a daily curse, and make life very difficult for the bulldozers as they clear spaces for the golf and villa development."

Rommel laid thousands of the steel-cased, anti-tank bar mines after Allied forces broke the German and Italian lines in November 1942.

But John Connolly, standard bearer for the City of Manchester Eighth Army Veterans' Association, said yesterday that he and his comrades were furious about the development. "It's absolutely scandalous," said Mr Connolly. "The battlefield should be preserved for posterity as a tribute to all the brave soldiers who died.

"A number of us visited El-Alamein in 2002 for the 60th anniversary of the battle and were hugely moved by what we saw.

"We paid tribute to all the fallen - including the Germans and Italians. There is no place for golf courses on a battlefield of this sort."

While there are no accurate figures for the ordnance left behind, Egypt says there are at least 20 million landmines buried in the area of more than 1,158 square miles around El-Alamein.

There are very few signposts to warn against the munitions and accidents are still frequent.

With the Afrika Korps on the run following the Second Battle of El-Alamein, Winston Churchill declared: "This is not the end, nor is it even the beginning of the end, but, it is perhaps, the end of the beginning."

The battle led to the defeat of the Germans in North Africa and effectively ended Nazi hopes of capturing the Suez Canal and Middle Eastern oil fields, marking a pivotal moment in the war.

But now, rather than maintaining the vast field of battle as a lasting monument to the almost 40,000 soldiers who lost their lives, the Egyptians believe it is time to move on.

"We are going to create a space for peace on this war zone," said state engineer George Zaki.

UPDATE: OH YEAH, THAT'S THE STUFF!

This is almost the clip I want:

What I really want, is the scene following this, when the golf course explodes:

WELL, IT IS 2007....

So of course you can get all your Bushwood Country Club shirts and stuff over at Carl Spackler.com.