Tourist
Whilst nigegilb may have slipped into the specific and whilst I’m sure that he would probably agree with the rest of us that General Jackson will indeed have merits as a fine soldier and military leader, notwithstanding the assessment made by Bruce Anderson, in the Spectator article that I posted previously, he was illustrating the point with example, that, to a man, our generals and air marshals have been in mesmeric thrall to the Bliar government and have been derelict in their duty towards the welfare of their subordinates in the conflicts already mentioned.
You may be justifiably content with General Jackson’s performance as a soldier – and I do not contend this element of assessment – but there are those of us who are less than happy with his and others’, supine acquiescence to the deleterious intent and execution of New Labour policy towards the military services.
I agree with that part of the Anderson assessment that he (and others) could have personally stood up to Bliar and the latter would have backed down. Maybe General Jackson is not a very good negotiator?
Perhaps you ought to cut nigegilb some slack? His intentions are entirely honourable and I think that you are both on the same side.
PS. I'm not a "whinging peacenick anti war". I actually supported the thing in 2003 but am now utterly disillusioned by the joint political incompetence and mendacity demonstated to have been in place at the time and seemingly growing more acute as days go by.