ARmy Rumour SErvice

There was a bit missing from the 1840 part, which was that our forces were set up in an absolutely indefensible position. But Rory has spent a lot of time in the area and appears keen to frat with the locals.

My grandmother always maintained that her father 'rode with Lord Roberts from Kabul to Kandahar' but I have never been able to substantiate that from original sources.

TV review: Afghanistan: The Great Game, A Personal View with Rory Stewart; The Queen and I | Television & radio | The Guardian

It was pretty much as you would expect from the beeb, unbalanced. It was unbalanced because it drew too heavily and uncritically from the Afghan side. An Afghan interviewee laughed at the idea that a british column could be outgunned, but that is precisly what happened at Maiwand. The Afghans under Ayub Khan massively outnumbered the British even before being joined by 6000 British-equipped Afghans who mutinied and abandoned their blocking position at Girishk, they had a 30 guns (inc 14 pounders) to 12 superiority, and much more ammunition. The British guns having only 50 rounds per gun due to transport logistics problems and had dumped a lot of ammo into the Helmand river. Even so, the Afghans had 5x as many casualties as the british, who did eventually manage a fighting retreat to khandahar.
A bad defeat certainly..but the Afghans had had to put in a mighty effort against a numerically smaller and "outgunned" opponent.

Originally Posted by afghanman

TV review: Afghanistan: The Great Game, A Personal View with Rory Stewart; The Queen and I | Television & radio | The Guardian

Good grief... I read the Grauniad's site on this and there are some valid and reasoned arguments and not, as I imagined, Leftie rantings... mind you, I still won't buy their pinko shoite and remain with the Scotsman, Sunday Post, Daily Torygraph and Blunderbuss Herald.

I liked the bit where the Afghan emigre living in London fondly reminisced about the glory of Maiwand and how it's coded into Afghan DNA. I wonder if child prostitution and endless civil war are also encoded as well.

I'm not sure it's fair to blame the Beeb, the show was written & produced by Mr Stewart.

He's not an ignorant man but I think he might be suffering from a touch of 'Lawrence-of-Arabia' syndrome. He's quite good in Parliament.

Originally Posted by Pyianno

I'm not sure it's fair to blame the Beeb, the show was written & produced by Mr Stewart.

He's not an ignorant man but I think he might be suffering from a touch of 'Lawrence-of-Arabia' syndrome. He's quite good in Parliament.

Funny you should say that. T E Stewart did a doc recently about his alter ego, including a shot of himself walking along a railway line.

I always thought Rory should have had himself buggered by the Turks ... for research purposes, natch.

He could have done a piece to camera while the Pasha flicked his scrotum with a glint in his eye.

Originally Posted by King_of_the_Burpas

I always thought Rory should have had himself buggered by the Turks ... for research purposes, natch.

He could have done a piece to camera while the Pasha flicked his scrotum with a glint in his eye.

The SAS briefed him about being raped, according to his book, so he was well on his way.

Takes some balls to walk across Afghanistan with nowt but a stick, some paracetamol and a half-dead dog to keep you company.