Military history, June 21st

SIR- Professor Hayden Bellenoit suggests (Letters, June 21st) that Britain is less able to adapt to the cultural landscape in Afghanistan than America. He may wish to consider that the failure of Europeans to carry out bad American strategy effectively in complex places has less to do with cultural hubris and more to do with a profound concern about the quality of the leader. What is surprising about so much of the American effort is how little relationship seems to exist between their knowledge of an environment and their understanding of it. Julian Lindley-French,Professor of military operational scienceNetherlands Defence... [read full story]