An Unorthadox Soldier

Peace and War and the Sandline Affair. An autobiography by Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Spicer OBE. Mainstream Publishing, £15.99

Why Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer's autobiography should be entitled "An Unorthodox Soldier" is beyond me. The reality is that he has been a very conventional soldier indeed. His curriculum vitae could easily be used as a paradigm for the modern, professional British army officer. The son of an army officer, he was educated at Sherborne in Dorset which, according to the author, is "a school with a long tradition of supplying officers to the army". After a brief flirtation with the legal profession, and eschewing the delights of University life, he entered the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, following in his father's footsteps. Here he won the Sword of Honour, the much sought after award for being top officer cadet and a real accolade.

He was commissioned into the Scots Guards and, despite his battalion (like all Brigade of Guards battalions) being on semi-permanent loan to the London Tourist Board, he saw a surprising amount of action in Northern Ireland and the Falklands. He also served in Bosnia as spin doctor to General Michael Rose, another Guardsman, whom half the army thought was a military genius whilst the other half thought he was barking mad. Finally, and just to make the point, Spicer taught at the Army Staff College and commanded the 1st Battalion of the Scots Guards, both of which indicate to any army officer that he or she is on the right track.

Militarily speaking, you don't get much more orthodox than that. Even when he left the army he followed that most conventional of routes for army officers entering the civilian world; he went to work for a bank in the City of London. Unorthodox soldier? You could have fooled me. In fact, Spicer's career would have probably passed without any public notice whatsoever had he not had a brilliant idea. He decided to set up what he euphemistically calls a "private military company" to provide military expertise to legitimate governments around the world who might need such advice and assistance. The company he founded is called Sandline International.

Brilliant idea it may have been but putting it into practice rapidly descended into farce. The company's first assignment was in Papua New Guinea where, after lengthy Machiavellian negotiations, Spicer was about to launch his operation against the rebels on behalf of the government when he was kidnapped by disaffected elements in the military. Far from saving the government, Sandline had to be saved itself. Spicer was rather ignominiously extracted from the clutches of his captors after some pretty hefty negotiations on his behalf by friends and the Foreign Office.

Sandline's next escapade, in Sierra Leone, fared little better, leading to the "arms to Africa" scandal which seriously embarrassed the Foreign Office and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook. The "Sandline Affair", as it became known, is a dark comedy with a plot of Monty Pythonesque proportions, involving deceit, obfuscation, dishonesty, and sheer incompetence on the part of government officials some of whom, as Spicer notes wryly, have since been promoted.

Much of the book is given over to trying to justify Sandline's existence as a "private military company". Spicer goes to great lengths to emphasise that his company works along strictly ethical lines and only for legitimate governments. You either buy this or you don't, but whether any company which, as part of its business, supplies arms privately to the third world can ever be ethical is a moot point. On the other hand, to whom do governments turn for practical help with internal crises when all they usually get from the international political community is messages of moral support? The UN? NATO? I think not.

>Sadly, there will probably always be a market for companies like Sandline. It is the second oldest profession, after all. Maybe we should be placated, if not content, that at least in Sandline's case the business is not in the hands of some rag-tag, power crazed gangster with scant regard for life or property in the ruthless pursuit of the enormous sums of money involved.

© Stuart W Crawford 8 November 1999

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