Ignore the past at our peril

Has Tony Blair ever read a history book? Today’s announcement that the Government “underestimated” the strength of the Taliban in Afghanistan suggests not.

By a terrible catalogue of blunders and miscalculations British troops are today locked in battle with Afghan tribesmen. These are some of the bravest and most determined warriors in the world. Less than 20 years ago they were our friends and allies.

The lesson of history is that foreigners tangle with such men at their peril. The problem with Mr Blair is that he seems to have no real knowledge either of history or its lessons.

In three Afghan wars between 1838 and 1919 Britain suffered a series of catastrophes, including the massacre of a column of 16,000 men and the slaughter of the entire Kabul garrison.

In the 20th century the Russians fared little better in their attempts to impose Soviet rule.

The Red Army poured into Afghanistan in 1979. Ten years later, having lost 15,000 killed and 35,000 wounded, it withdrew in humiliation.

There was a window of opportunity in 2002 for the West, having joined forces with Afghans to drive out the Taliban, to achieve great things in that troubled land.

Instead, Britain and America went off to war in Iraq, a conflict which we now know was based on false, and possibly faked, intelligence.

While the US/UK forces floundered in the morass of Iraq, the Taliban quietly slipped back into southern Afghanistan, gathering new recruits for this new jihad (holy war) against the West.

Already there are disturbing echoes of Vietnam as our forces try to separate friends from foes in a war where the enemy never wears uniform and where every innocent civilian killed inspires others to join the jihad.

As with Vietnam, we are fed a daily diet of optimism in high places. Today, Defence Secretary Des Browne says success in Afghanistan is “some way off” but will be “massively worth it”.

Does he believe it? Does Tony Blair believe it?

And has either of them ever heard the old saying that the nation which forgets its history is doomed to re-live it?

Let’s hear it for daddy-long-legs

The ghostly brush of a wing against your shoulder in the shower may not be the most pleasant of experiences.

And yet the current plague of crane flies, better known as daddy-long-legs, is a sure sign that the land is in good heart.

It takes just the right amount of warmth and wetness for these curious creatures to appear in such numbers, providing seasonal snacks for millions of songbirds.

A plague of daddy-long-legs is something to celebrate - if you can just stop screaming for long enough.

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