“I was wondering, idly, recently if maybe it was time for us to have another war with someone,” journalist Rod Liddle’s provocative column begins, giving readers a disturbing taste of what’s to come. No, he doesn’t want a "hi-tech war" like the invasion of Iraq but instead is hoping for an even bigger event which "impinges on us all." 

It gets worse. Dismissing France as an "obvious candidate" for British aggression, as that war would be over "too quickly" – a none too subtle dig at the French collapse of 1940 – he muses that the best bet is to attack… China. 

War “reduces personal dissatisfaction” and "increases social cohesion and integration,” booms Liddle.

His record shows him no stranger to feeding on controversy and outrageous, click-baity opinion pieces, who clearly doesn’t care that his supposed humor doesn’t translate well into Chinese – or any other language, really. For some, this was already too much to take. 

“Even as satire, this is offensive and extremely not funny to those who have experienced war. Sorry that my sense of humour cannot be stretched to encompass the death toll in Iraq,”tweeted historian Moudhy Al-Rashid at the end of a series of scathing (and not-safe-for-work) comments.

Others were also incensed by the newspaper’s decision to publish the piece, with one writer Musa Okwonga suggesting it was time people began to "interrogate the editorial policy of the Sunday Times."

The irony or sarcasm, if intended, went right over the head of people who were dumbfounded by the "stomach churning" article.