Send in the (very) Old Guard

Following on from yesterday’s post... BBC reports that two RAF personnel have been killed in Afghanistan.

One of them was a 51-year-old reservist, SAC Gary Thompson. 51 years old... People of that age weren’t even at the sharp end at the end of World War I, when millions had already been killed.

How bad can it be that blokes of 51 (an age when any civil servant worth his final salary pension scheme has probably already got his feet up) are on the front-ish line against the Taliban?

The BBC account is enough to make you weep... Johnson had five daughters, who he said inspired him to re-join the RAF to serve against the likes of the Taliban – whose attitude to women has always been atrocious.