End of an era?

The bit below is from the Daily Mail.

It is a well observed piece of reporting - short and sweet one might say. I had the pleasure of working in a very very small way with General Jackson when he was a much less senior person. His personality and style comes across well. His nickname amongst troops is The Prince of Darkness.

I have no experience of modern day soldiering. Hearts and minds was a new concept when I served. It was most often used as in "grab them by the testicles; hearts and minds will follow". I make no apology for any involvement I may have had in that style of assisting the civil powers any more than a gladiator would about killing a lion in the arena. Generally, my opponent was out to kill me and I cannot really appreciate the modern attitude where it seems I must appreciate this as understandable given their situation.

It will be a sad day when we lose the last of General Jackson's cohorts.

One of the British contingent explains that civilians and soldiers react differently to casualties. Civilians want something to be done, some redress, endless discussion. The army has ritual and the often silent, closed sympathy among a band of brothers. Then it 'cracks on'. Lieutenant Colonel Richard Eaton explains that there is a huge cultural divide. In England we say that the war is going badly so the troops must come out. In Basra, the army says that this is a dangerous and decisive period, so it must finish the job. Casualties are borne: 'There is no numerical limit to what we are prepared to take,' he says. 'The 100th fatality was not a watershed for us. We are staying here until we are finished. It is not that you ever leave the losses behind you; the person who was sleeping beside you isn't there any more and these blokes are in it together. It is regimental. It is family. But you deal with it.'

These are the conditions in which General Sir Mike Jackson, or CGS — Chief of the General Staff — as his staff call him, arrives for his final visit to Iraq. He is 62, and when he retires at the end of the summer, this place will be his legacy. It is not surprising then that he has the look of Aslan about him — a head apparently carved from a mountain, lake-grey eyes and the voice of Michael Gambon. He may be one of the last fighting soldiers to lead the British Army.

The public have lost the stomach for war after the fraud of Iraq, and the risk-free, rights-based litigious Labour culture has little sympathy for the armed forces.

CGS may be the last of his kind,' says Brigadier Simon Mayall, who takes over in September as deputy commander in Baghdad.
'Behind him will come people like me, who are much more aware of the politics. There will be managers and moneymen. He comes from a different era — uncompromised. 'He drinks too much and smokes too much. He skis off piste. Soldiering is an affair of the heart and he understands this.' Soldiers pride themselves on being part of an army that is apolitical but not amoral.