D. Telegraph, 13 Feb, p 18 had an article by Isimbard Wilkinson on his
visit to the US troops in Afghanistan, their difficult task.
He refers to the earlier time of the Great Game, & writes
"There are still echoes of that imperial past for the newcomer to
this strange land." .. a colonel was reading Kipling and Churchill's
dispatches in 1898. Some tactics are still unchanged a platoon nr
Urgun was ambushed in age-old Pathan fashion as patrol passed through a
ravine; the American's should observe Kipling's cautionary verse:
- A scrimmage in a Border station.
- A canter down some dark defile,
- Two thousand pounds of education
- Drops to a ten-rupee jezail,
- The Crammers boast, the Squadron's pride,
- Shot like a rabbit in a ride!
Although as he writes "the Americans can now deploy something
faster than cavalry and far better protected", this seems
another apposite Kipling quote for a current conflict. Is Wilkinson
known to quote Kipling?
Bryan Diamond
Bryan C Diamond
London NW3
Tel 020 7433 1876