Five dead is the biggest single loss of British life in one incident in Afghanistan since 2006 when 14 died in the Nimrod aircraft crash. And it comes at a time when British public opinion is increasingly sceptical of the war. But the way in which it happened is even more damaging. The five British…
Journalists and soldiers have very different ways of looking at the world. Journalists question everything; soldiers accept the task assigned by politicians. Journalists stand back to see how what’s happening fits into the big picture; soldiers set a limited goal and make it happen. Journalists are sceptics; soldiers have to believe in the rightness of…
Jon Snow
General Sir Richard Dannatt, the retiring head of the British army, has done a remarkable thing. He appears, single handedly, to have seen off the opponents in the political classes to the Afghan war.