Michael Burleigh
War Without End?
Descent into Chaos: How the War Against Islamic Extremism is Being Lost in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
By Ahmed Rashid
Allen Lane / The Penguin Press 484pp £25
In early June the number of British servicemen and women killed in Afghanistan reached one hundred. Their massed faces, many of them in their early twenties, stared out from several newspapers. Most of them smiled for the photographer – whether a comrade, if they were in camouflage kit, or a formal portraitist, if they were in dress uniforms. It takes an effort of will to imagine the circumstances in which they died: an air crash, a suicide bomber, a roadside improvised explosive device, a bomb delivered as friendly fire, perhaps an accident with a gun or the actions of a homicidal colleague. Many commentators have used the milestone of a hundred dead to criticise NATO’s ongoing mission in Afghanistan or to support its continuance at a time when the coalition commander in Helmand province, Brigadier Mark Carleton-Smith, claims we have reached the ‘tipping point’ in the war with the Taliban insurgents.
Many soldiers lament the deepening disconnection between British society and those brave men and women our leaders despatch to fight and die on our behalf. This disconnection is reflected in inadequate equipment and low pay, for which a brief homecoming parade in Glasgow or Norwich seems scant recompense. More seriously
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
Twitter Feed
When @djbduncan notices the text for a literary jigsaw puzzle had been written by a former colleague, his head spins. A wild surmise. Are jigsaws REF-able?
Dennis Duncan - The W Factor
Dennis Duncan: The W Factor
literaryreview.co.uk
In an effort to scold drinkers, Victorian temperance societies furiously marked every drinking establishment with a red X on city maps. It was a spectacular case of propaganda backfiring.
@foxtosser explores the history of drink maps
Edward Brooke-Hitching - From Beer Street to Gin Lane
Edward Brooke-Hitching: From Beer Street to Gin Lane - Drink Maps in Victorian Britain by Kris Butler
literaryreview.co.uk
How did a workers’ insurance agent who died of tuberculosis at the age of forty become a global literary icon?
@MortenHoiJensen on Kafka's metamorphosis
Morten Høi Jensen - Paranoid Humanoid
Morten Høi Jensen: Paranoid Humanoid - Metamorphoses: In Search of Franz Kafka by Karolina Watroba; Kafka: Making o...
literaryreview.co.uk