by Will Hutton
![A cortege carrying the bodies of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan passes through Wootton Bassett in 2010. Cortege of UK hearses](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v5urxGMjKNuzpvGeP5phLdS88uFv6Es4e6tT4buWHtTJjp2B8j1fsxcpknjQqNxU9AcIygRXNLUjb_-8WEvCEcsSaGV7JHxVEj5N07SduemmM0n4ir-0zDuMJFmlyDJ9O2-lfdvgyaD8gT=s0-d)
The Ministry of Defence and the military establishment are revealed as over-optimistic boneheads, says Will Hutton, and the amount of money squandered beggars belief.
A cortege carrying the bodies of British soldiers killed in Afghanistan passes through Wootton Bassett in 2010.
In Afghanistan, Britain has just suffered a humiliating defeat, the worst in more than half a century and, arguably, ranking with the worst in modern times. The truth is inescapable: we are no longer a great economic, technological or military power.