In fact, second lieutenants were primary-school teachers. Sure, teachers with guns, but a platoon commander was, nonetheless, the guy who sorted out the working day for 30 men under his command, taught their lessons, helped them with their homework, sorted out their petty squabbles and put plasters on their knees when they fell over in the playground.

Good general differ from bad generals only in the degree to which they resist the psychopathology of the very organization they serve. Norman Dixon

The British Army has a fine tradition of being so distracted by what it is currently up to it stubbornly refuses to look round the corner, let alone into the future.

What surfaced was the surprising power of our cultural heritage.

Violence is temporary, but learning is permanent.

Perhaps wherever you go first is what you judge everything else by.

I couldn't have done 16 months of deployment without a sense of irony. N

we sulked and, in the finest tradition of bored soldiers, sat around throwing stones at each other.

The hardest thing about getting what you want is knowing what to do with it.