So, sadly we have met the day when the one hundredth British service person has been killed in Afghanistan with the deaths yesterday of Privates Nathan Cuthbertson, 19, Charles David Murray, 19, and Daniel Gamble, 22.

They aren’t much older than Shakirullah Yasin Ali, a 14 year old boy who was prepared to carry out a suicide attack.

The 14-year-old Afghan suicide bomber - Asia, World - The Independent

a small, frail boy, just 14 years old, arrested as he prepared to carry out a suicide bombing against British and American targets. “If I had succeeded, I would be dead now, I realise that,” he said in a soft, nervous voice.

“But those who were instructing me said that if I believed in serving God it was my duty to fight against the foreigners. They said God would protect me when the time came.”

It was a suicide bomber like Shakirullah who, on Sunday, claimed the lives of three more British soldiers in Helmand, bringing the total number of UK fatalities in Afghanistan to 100.

Sadly it seems we have learnt little since the First World War. The young on both sides are still dying.