Under heavy security, German Defence Minister Baron Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg made a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Thursday to meet with international military commanders and Afghan officials.

In his first visit to the war-torn country since taking the helm at the Defence Ministry, Guttenberg was to hold talks with the head of NATO’s ISAF mission Gen. Stanley McChrystal, his Afghan counterpart Abdel Rahim Wardak and President Hamid Karzai.

At  least that’s what we have been officially told. One quick glance at the photograph of this memorable event shows the Flying Baron in a magnificently Napoleonic pose – not even needing to support himself against the turbulent movement of the transport aircraft and impervious to the agony he must be feeling with that soldier’s legs impaled on his scarily supersized trousers.

“Quick, find me a picture of a plane. Anything will do. And one of Karl, yes, yes, the one in direct sunlight will be just fine. Send them to Heinrich in Graphics quickly, he should be back from his kneipenbummel* by now.”

* pub crawl. Never say AllSeeingEye isn’t educational.