The rather elegant blog Defence of the Realm which is not only well thought out but has interesting and perceptive analysis is running a story on changes to tactical doctrine in UK warfighting in Afghanistan. The new doctrine will be taught to all new army officers. But is the doctrine really new? It sets out the need to bribe the Taliban with "bags of gold" in order to buy them off. This strategy for the UK has a long and ignominious history going back to William Pitt the Younger and the bribing of most of Europe to stand fast against the tyrrany of Bonaparte. An analysis of British foreign policy over the last 300 years shows little evidence of the stupendously misguided concept, advanced by the late Robin Cook, of the UK having an "ethical foreign policy".
This policy of bribery (exquisitely announced on the eve of the Queen's Speech which inter alia outlined the Bribery Bill, which will make it offence to bribe foreign officials and for business to fail to prevent bribery) also acknowledges that our counter-insurgency tactics, learned in Northern Ireland, don't work generally. Perhaps this will put an end to the extremely irksome behaviour exhibited by some senior army officers of going round saying to anyone who will listen "Now pay attention you lot, we know all about the right way to conduct these sort of operations"
Hopefully this will all lead to a new generation of army leaders who actually understand how to prosecute these wars. Unfortunately the admission that we have got it wrong will be of little comfort to the wounded warriors of the current conflict.
No comments:
Post a Comment