To the surprise of none, we learn from 13th Century Fox that there is to be no fundamental change in the policy underwriting the prosecution of the war in Afghanistan.We assume that the policy or the current version of it has the support of the military High Command but, whether that is the case or not, there can be little complaint.

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I hope you're dictating and Mrs EURef is on the keyboard

Mrs EU Ref is doing the dictating!!! Moi ... I just doing the writing.

We have had some complaints from the MoD that have made it into the public domain. Were things dire they would be more numerous and stronger, and crucially with some different plan of action to try. The latter seems to be what is lacking. Where are the tactics? What is the aim? How can things be done differently? Our Government and MoD don't know what 'victory' in this campaign means therefore cannot achieve it. Victory will be defined after we leave, whenever that is.

The politicians and MoD Top Brass seem to be deferring to each other all the time. They are all backing away from the nettle rather than grasping it. I imagine it has always been like this though.

Politicians do what they always do, when they have no information on a subject, either change the subject or say nothing,

I think it would be a good idea to take the current crop of nonces,(5 at a time, we would'nt miss them) to live in country, (as close to the action as possible) for a period of not less than 40 days at a time. This would at least partially qualify them to spout from experience.

Would that book on DBP be The Last Valley by Martin Windrow? I can recommend On the Psychology of Military Incompetence by Norman Dixon to Dr Fox. It explains how clever people can make stupid errors.

Battle of Dienbienphu, Jules Roy, published by Faber & Faber 1963. (Translated from the French).

Fully agree about Dixon - should be compulsory reading.

Well, no one who reads this blog can be surprised that the new plonkers have no more idea that the old lot of plonkers. The only bold idea worth pursuing is to evacuate now and let the Afghanis murder each other till they are all very dead. Problem solved! And for anyone who advances the idea that they will then be on our streets - if they are - shoot them.

Many thanks for the recommendation, I've put it on my wants list.

More shocking to me than DBP was the annihilation of two 10,000 strong French columns by the Viet Minh - shades of the disappearance of three Legions and auxiliaries in the Teutoburger Wald.

Try: The Quicksand War - Prelude to Vietnam. Lucien Bodard. Again Faber but published in 1967, even though it covers the period from the end of WWII up to 1950. Rivetting reading. One "money quote", describing Gen Chanson:



You rarely get this quality of writing in contemporary books.

Many thanks. Another one on my wants list.

Perhaps it's not just stupidity, ignorance and arrogance. Perhaps all the main parties are dominated, intellectually and financially by essentially the same group whose interests they faithfully pursue underneath the public relations charade of yah-boo 'democracy'. Whoever you vote for, the (real) government always wins!