The British cannot believe that they are getting a bloody nose in Afghanistan. Day and night, British politicians and the media prattle on about how under-equipped their troops in Afghanistan are and how, if only they had more helicopters and more heavily armoured vehicles, they would not have lost 15 soldiers in a week.
Years of arrogance and cowardice have led the British to believe that they are invincible and that they can commit aggression and occupy other countries without losing a soul. Like their friends the Americans and the Israelis, they have got used to shooting from high in the sky or from miles away with long-range artillery, cruise missiles and the like. But now they are coming to terms with the fact that sometimes you have to get out of your airborne, seaborne and armoured citadels and fight other men, face to face, like men. They are having to confront the truth of real warfare, and they don't like it.
I do not believe that any number of helicopters or armoured vehicles will help the British in Afghanistan. They have only to look at the fate of other invaders of that country to draw the right conclusion.
I have no sympathy for the Taleban. However, I truly believe that a country's internal problems can be solved only internally, by its own people, not by foreign invaders or quislings riding on the backs of invaders' tanks. What exactly are the British fighting for, thousands of miles away from their homeland? Hamed Karzai and his corrupt gang of half-wits?
Sooner or later, the British and their American masters will leave Afghanistan and return home, defeated and humiliated. And the Afghan people will go back to square one and start to clear up the mess.
The British and the Americans, in the meantime, will have learnt - as their friends the Israelis will learn after them - that wars cannot be won by bombing wedding parties, schools, hospitals and ambulances with F-16 fighters and drones remotely operated from thousands of miles away.
