The deep sadness felt by Blair and his cronies is for other reasons entirely than the death of the 100th young British man in Iraq. It’s more to do with the political implications and fallout.

Now Blair et al are sending more of our troops -our people, not America’s - into severe danger in Afghanistan as well. This is a Prime Minister who has involved his (our) country in more wars than any of his predecessors this century, blindly arrogant, convinced of the ‘rightness’ of his many causes.

As for the comments about ‘operational commanders on the ground’, well yes indeed. It’s altogether better that they take charge, God knows what would happen if Whitehall attempted to manage things.