History repeating itself

From the"Adventure of the Willow Pool" by Denis O. Smith, published in "The Lost Chronicles of Sherlock Holmes" by Constable & Robinson, London, 2014:
"The Second Afghan War has already taken its place in the pages of modern history. Drawn unwillingly into a violent fratricidal quarrel, in which a simple overture from one side justified one's slaughter in the eyes of the other, the British Army endured great suffering and reversals of fortune before its final triumph settled the matter and restored peace... A vicious conflict, which no one had desired, marked by treachery and double-dealing, in a barren and inhospitable land in which no one had ever wished to set foot..."

Rico says it sounds all too familiar...