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... When you’re wounded and left on Afghanistan’s plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An’ go to your Gawd like a soldier.
    Go, go, go like a soldier,
    Go, go, go like a soldier,
    Go, go, go like a soldier,
      So-oldier _of_ the Queen! ( ‘The Young British Soldier’ Rudyard Kipling )

... In the context of this poem, it is a bit sobering to reflect on the British experience in Afghanistan, which they conquered three times but never held, despite vast improvements in British equipment and use of successively larger forces.  This is worth telling in some detail.

... Britain had a fairly easy time taking Kabul during the first Afghan war of 1838, but by the end only a single man returned alive.  Their invasion force consisted of 9,500 men of the East India Company and 6,000 men of Shah Shajan’s army, an individual who was deeply unpopular in Afghanistan, but whom the British were trying to install on the Afghan throne.

... The Second Afghan War of 1878-1879 was less disastrous, but involved setbacks that sound all too familiar today. ... the war begin Nov. 22, 1878 when a small British force of 37,500 invaded Afghanistan.  The British fought their way through the high mountain passes and were able to take Kabul, where they installed a government friendly to Britain and signed a peace treaty.  But on September 2, 1879 the British residency in Kabul was wiped out by a mob, with only a few able to escape.

... There was yet a Third Anglo-Afghan War in 1919.  It begin when Afghan monarch Amanullah Khan decided to attack across the Indian border in May, 1919.  The attack, described as a “Jihad”, was timed to take advantage of
the unrest in India (the massacre by the British at Amritsar had just taken place). It took the British by surprise and managed to capture a few towns.[4]  The British responded with a massive invasion of Afghanistan through the Khyber Pass.  This ground down to a stalemate where Amanullah was forced to sue for peace.

... As to the larger questions of whether all this past carnage or current military adventures are justified or achieved any lasting purpose, I leave that to the reader.

( The Wondering Minstrels : Anthology run by Abraham Thomas and Martin DeMello. http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/1146.html  avec des liens vers ces trois guerres afghanes )

... Il n’empêche : un certain mécontentement règne chez les officiers britanniques. Ils se plaignent en privé de l’insuffisance du soutien tactique et logistique. Une partie du matériel n’était pas destinée à ce genre de conflit. Les avions de reconnaissance sont trop peu nombreux et arrivent souvent trop tard. Les pièces détachées manquent.

Ces critiques ont été brutalement exprimées par le major James Loden, du 3e bataillon de parachutistes, dans un courrier électronique adressé à Londres il y a quelques semaines, et dont la publication a suscité un vif émoi. La Royal Air Force, y écrit-il, “est totalement inutile” en Afghanistan. Il donne notamment l’exemple d’une erreur où un pilote avait raté ses cibles et failli bombarder des soldats britanniques. Le chef d’état-major, le général Richard Dannatt, a réagi vivement à ce jugement qu’il a qualifié d’“irresponsable”. ( Le Monde Jean-Pierre Langellier 28/09/06 )