[Growltiger]

Sounds a bit like us British...

You can imagine some ludricrously moustachioed upper class prat saying "I know we are at peace with those Zulu fellahs, but the peasants back at Blighty always like a decent victory to keep them in tip top condition. What say we gather 5,000 of our red coat chappies and go and give them wretched natives and jolly good kicking, what? oh, and dont forget the cavalry, cannon, rockets, Martini-Henry repeating rifles, machine guns and all that stuff, I know them Zulus only have spears and immense bravery but those spears do look rather sharp dont cha know - I wouldn't want to get put out for my next rugger game"......

Which probably explains why we lost at Isandhlwana. Sun Tzu waxed lyrical about the pitfalls of a general being an arrogant incompetent pillock who massively underestimated his enemy.

I suppose the problem we have is that (excluding the Boer war and the War of Independence in the states (which happened when we were embroiled in huge punch ups in Europe), Britain has pretty much won all its wars (not battles mind you but wars) and I suppose this kind of lead to a gung ho and arrogant approach to things. People need to lose every know and then to keep it real.