Probably :) My avatar founded the place, and I post under his name because he started as an entertainer in the courts of the mighty and found a conscience. The fact that he employed one of the few professional farters on record as his assistant is a pure bonus.

Me, I was HQ Accountant, also covering Operations, for WEU, the European Defence Diplomatic HQ, and did things far beyond beancounting - there are many beancounters, but not many who've done what I have - and that's all you'll get on that subject. WEU implemented the Petersberg Tasks, laying the foundations and establishing the methods of peacemaking, which won the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize. In that role, one of the decisions I made made what became the Afghan War very likely, and I will NOT dishonour the 453 deaths which resulted by allowing fictions to be imputed if I can refute them. My Christian vocation was declared to the Organisation before I ever started, and that showed itself at the very start of my involvement in the Military, when finding my first uniform I also found the uniforms used in the filming of Oh! What a Lovely War!

My great-grandfather, Louis Nestor Guiot, was a Captain in the Belgian Army who won the Chevalier de l'Ordre de Léopold with Oakleaves on the field of battle of the First Battle of the Yser, twice, by order of the King of Belgium, commanding what was left of his Army. That's roughly VC and bar in UK terms.

I consequently have responsibilities both to my family and to myself not to allow the ghosts of the past to overshadow the present. The reasons Haig had were for his time. If you insist on not learning the lessons of that War, then you will be responsible for condemning our descendants to learn the lessons again for themselves. As someone who has knowingly taken that responsibility, as the least bad option, then I must do as much as i can to warn you it's a bad idea.

Having done what I've done, when the proponents of jingoism, who have not, persist in their pernitious mythology, I get irritated, because they're calling me a liar. I have put my hide in the way of harm, and so have earned the hard way the right to warn you against the siren song of those who not only have not, and therefore are speaking out of their arses, but who also have allowed themselves to be seduced by fife and drum. Yes, we need military in case we're wrong, but no, we do not need to deify them either. They start as ordinary folks and are trained according to their aptitudes. What we do NOT need is some polly who's got a dose of megalomania developing a Napoleon complex, as it's kind of rare to see them and theirs paying the butcher's bill themselves.