Operation Banner – which was not formally wound up until July 31st, 2007 – became the longest campaign in British military history. As Fintan O’Toole put it that day in The Irish Times, the army had been “a player not a referee”. But without doubt there were, along the way, all too many military actions that were politically and even militarily counterproductive. In An Army of Tribes, Edward Burke poses a less familiar question – was it the right kind of army for the task? After he “died on me”, Hathaway went out and, with the help of his men, killed Murray with the same knife.

Source: The Irish Times March 31, 2018 05:03 UTC