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Afghanistan
Afghan war ‘cuckoo’: UK general
2006-10-30
Prime Minister Tony Blair was facing renewed pressure over Britain’s role in the global war on terror on Sunday as a key military figure in an interview called the war in Afghanistan “cuckoo”.
Pak Daily Times wrote the headline, apparently. Guthrie actually said it was cuckoo to fight the war without enough men.
Critics of Britain’s policies in Afghanistan and Iraq were also bolstered by the publication of leaked documents apparently acknowledging that the presence of British troops in the two countries may have fuelled domestic terrorism. General Charles Guthrie, a former chief of the defence staff, told the Observer newspaper: “Anyone who thought this was going to be a picnic in Afghanistan... to launch the British army in with the numbers there are, while we’re still going on in Iraq, is cuckoo.” Lord Guthrie, one of Blair’s most trusted commanders before he quit in 2001, also labelled “unrealistic” Blair’s promise to give the army all the extra resources it needed. He called for more troops, funding and equipment for what he said was a “very, very” over-committed army, the newspaper said.
Posted by:Fred

#10  I'm thinking Kevin Costner for the part - his authentic accent in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was the high point of the movie ...Forsooth!
Posted by: Kevin Costner   2006-10-30 21:31  

#9  I wonder whether someone will give the Harry Potter series similar treatment. Draco Malfoy and the Second Intifada, anyone?
Posted by: Eric Jablow   2006-10-30 21:02  

#8  difficult to do Flashman properly for television

Black Adder. Hilarious Flashman.
Posted by: J.D. Lux   2006-10-30 19:56  

#7  "No!' I roared, shaking my fist, 'I'll kill the bastard, that's what i'll do - after I've sued him! I'll call him out, if he's a civilian, and blow his mangy head off on Calais sands - I'll horse whip him publicly.

Flashman
Posted by: pihkalbadger   2006-10-30 18:27  

#6  It is cuckoo to fight the war with your hands tied behind your back, the terrorists safe in Pakistan, immune to strikes except when Osama or Ayman is nearby.
Posted by: john   2006-10-30 15:14  

#5  The trouble is that while Fraser is an excellent historical novelist (and even his straight history, The Steel Bonnets, is very well researched), he also writes screenplays that are heavily weighted to slapstick which takes away from the depth of his characters.

When Roddy McDowell played in Royal Flash, for example, he got the snivelling coward part down right, but he neglected all the other facets of Flashman's personality: drunkard/braggart/spendthrift, bully/sadist, gambler/cheat, filanderer/rapist, and just generally despicable cad.

In other words, Flash is a reprehensible, nasty person, a villain used as a tool by the powerful, who just happens to be extraordinarily lucky.

This brings him undeserved honor, glory, fame and fortune that utterly irritates his peers, who know he is a scoundrel. And yet when they try to be honorable and do the right thing, they are punished, killed and forgotten.

The scenery of his stories are both the times and the brilliant and ruthless historical figures that use Flashman as their weapon in intrigue and realpolitik with each other.

Filmed, Flashman should be far more like Barry Lyndon in appearance (yet not so deathly dull), and have a male lead with a very wide range of acting in what would be a most demanding role.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-10-30 13:03  

#4  It would be difficult to do Flashman properly for television: too many unclothed women of various degree and hue, but equal in enthusiasm.
Posted by: trailing wife   2006-10-30 12:57  

#3  The entire Flashman series is brilliant but I have a beef that he has yet to write up what Flashy did during the US Civil war. I know he was heavily decorated by both sides but I'd like the details.

I'd love to see a Flashy tv series the likes of the Sharpes one but I'd be content for someone to release the Royal Flash movie on DVD.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2006-10-30 12:21  

#2  Hah! I just read that book last month, Anonymoose. Didn't help that the joke wasn't tipped at any point within the pages of the book proper, complete with techy footnotes from the "editor".

The references to Tom Brown's School Days should have tipped them off, but then, your average academic historian is a bit of a tool, and generally lacking in anything that might be described with any justice as "a sense of humor".

Flashman is such a good book that it's a shame that it was so clearly written with the baldfaced nihilistic intent to undermine & savage British tradition & the assumptions underlying Victorian virtue.
Posted by: Mitch H.   2006-10-30 10:15  

#1  Of course, the all-time-great British cuckoo General in Afghanistan was Elphinstone, regarded by many as the worst Commanding General of all time.

The best tribute to Elphinstone is in the historical novel "Flashman", by George MacDonald Fraser, which is a fun read about an anti-hero; but was so well written and researched that a lot of historians foolishly assumed it was a real biography.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2006-10-30 08:40  

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