Two passages from Rory Stewart’s review of Diana Preston’s The Dark Defile: Britain’s Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842, in the New York Review of Books 8/16/12: As General William Nott, who commanded at Kandahar throughout the campaign, remarked: “If a man is too stupid or too lazy to drill company, he often turns sycophant, cringer to … Continue reading politicals