Slow on the uptake!

It's never been said that the British government were quick on the uptake, indeed any slower and they would go backwards. With Prime minister Gordon (personality missing) Brown at the helm it's moving so slowly continental drift has overtaken it.
Now with the death of the highest ranking officer in Afghanistan, Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, it's emerged traveling by road in hostile country is dangerous, indeed just about everybody including the Colonel knew that, he even told them so less than a month ago. But to be honest it shouldn't have come as a surprise.
Just over 30 years ago 18 soldiers of the parachute regiment were killed at Warrenpoint in Ireland, they were killed by a roadside bombing, or an IED (improvised explosive devise) the same sort of of ambush used to kill Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe and countless other soldiers in both Afghanistan and Iraq.
Even then 30 years ago it was well known that to travel by vehicle in "bandit country" as some parts of Northern Ireland were then called was pure suicide. Yet 30 years later the lessons haven't been learned. Oh the soldiers know it well enough, as do the officers, it's the government's who don't learn, or want to learn.