those who cannot learn from their mistakes . . .

So, after the CIA stuffed the Taleban's bunkers full of stingers and heavy machine guns back in the '70s- which were later connected to several downed airliners, warlords and opium production- it seems that the hard lessons about the stupidity of trying to buy off guerillas with weapons hasn't been learnt by the UK. I can't decide whether the inept handling of the Afghani situation is, in fact; some Kevorkian attempt to divest the nation of our responsibilities in that nation by inciting the government there to eject us in disgust; or just the usual bumbling incompetence from the good ol' boys of the civ-serv.