Quote Originally Posted by The Bedlington Terrier View Post
The last word..."It was a war begun for no wise purpose, carried on with a strange mixture of rashness and timidity, brought to a close after suffering and disaster, without much glory attached either to the government which directed, or the great body of troops which waged it. Not one benefit, political or military, was acquired with this war. Our eventual evacuation of the country resembled the retreat of an army defeated.’ – Rev. G. R. Geig, British Army Chaplain on the First Anglo-Afghan War 1839-42, known by the British as the ‘Disaster in Afghanistan’

We never learn - do we?
There's an even more recent example, the Red Army gave up to it as well. There was every reason for the Yanks to go after Alky Ada and Bin Laden, but then mission creep took over, almost as you say BT, our politicians never learn, 'we' or at least our sons and daughters are the ones that suffer, the ones that get killed and maimed.