This is a book written by Richard Dannatt, former Chief of the General Staff (CGS) and should be required reading for our politicians and senior civil servants. It is very readable and informative and demonstrates how UK forces have been used as instruments of government foreign and domestic policy in all the campaigns and small wars that Britain has been involved in since 1945. There were nearly 3,000,000 British soldiers in 1945, in 2016 there were less than 82,000. There has been just one year since 1945 when there have been no deaths of British soldiers on active service.