i was working for the land deputy joint commander, mike wilkes, who had been a former sas officer.e first general officer officer to travel to saudi arabia to talk to general schwarzkopf abourt britain could do. storming norman? indeed, and he wasn't really quite a storming norman. we arrived in his offce at half past midnight, and it was very clear in the conversation, he looked at mike wilkes�*s arms and said "mike, i didn't want any...special forces, i've got plenty of those — i want tanks." i remember writing "tanks" in my notebook. in what became a series of mass mobilisations and major conflicts in which britain and america were fighting side by side, you must be aware that people look back at those — not the gulf war, but what some call the second gulf war in iraq, syria — they say they all failed. jeremy corbyn came to office partly because people said he was right about that, wasn't he? i think failure is a powerful term, and it's interesting to reflect on whether we failed to win battles, probably didn't succeed in many wars, we probably didn't fail to win the battles. an