Irish Experience Used in Kansas

Senior and former members of the US Army based at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, are producing a 300-page document, entitled United States Counter-Insurgency Doctrine which plans to alter radically the way they fight future battles.

And the changes? British Army tactics. They are to be adopted by the US against insurgents following the failure of its military to win the love of the Iraqi people.

Senior American commanders are now drawing on lessons learned by British forces in the north of Ireland, and the tactics they employed extensively during that conflict.

The drafting process is due to be completed in early summer and the doctrine is scheduled to be made public by October.

Speaking of a softly softly British approach, this year marks the 25th Anniversary of the Hunger Strikes