Losing Small Wars: British Military Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan is no 4

Congratulations to Frank Ledwidge whose Losing Small Wars: British Military Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan is number four on the Evening Standard non-fiction bestseller list this week.

The book has received widespread review coverage including:

Losing Small Wars is an excellent book … It provides a devastating, highly readable critique of why Britain’s armed forces have fared so badly in two of the country’s most recent and controversial conflicts: Iraq and Afghanistan…. what Losing Small Wars does so well is to bring the catalogue of errors to life in graphic detail.” Sean Rayment, Telegraph

” … the author deserves applause for bluntly expressing the truths about our recent military failures that too many of those involved find it convenient to obscure… The author concludes: “We do not currently have armed forces that are equipped for conflicts… where brutally put they are actually invaders in lands far away and of which they know really very little.” I agree. A radical shake-up of the army is needed. It is only because its prestige is so low after defeats in Iraq and Afghanistan – as Ledwidge justly characterises these experiences – that the government can get away with savaging its strength in defence cuts. If much is wrong with today’s British Army, by the time the Cameroons have finished there will be precious little of it left.” Max Hastings, The Sunday Times

“…Losing Small Wars, is a savage indictment of the military leadership that got British soldiers into one impossible situation after another in Iraq and Afghanistan.” Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times

“In many ways this is the sort of book I’d like to have written. Controversial, iconoclastic even, written by an insider, it casts a knowledgeable and critical eye over recent British military operations and doesn’t shy away from exposing incompetency and naming the guilty.” Stuart Crawford, The Scotsman