Talk:Robert Grainger Ker Thompson

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Contents 1 Quotes 2 counter-insurgency 3 Requested move 4 Wordy Dab-ing Suffix 5 DOB?

[edit] Quotes

"Ideally there should be one single organisation responsible for all security intelligence within the country. If there is more than one, it is almost impossible to define the respective responsibilities of each organisation or to devise any means of co-ordinating their activities. .., agents, especially the less reliable, will get themselves on to the payroll of several organisations and feed them the same unreliable information. Such information seemingly confirmed from different sources will be accepted as authentic. The different organisations will withhold information from one another in order to obtain the credit for themselves. A promising line of intelligence may well be cut inadvertently, or even intentionally, by another organisation. Mutual suspicion and jealousies will arise, quite likely with the result that the separate organisations merely end up spying on each other. .. The best organisation to be responsible for all internal security intelligence work is the special branch of a police force rather than a completely separate organisation. It is a great advantage if intelligence officers have police powers and are able to call when necessary on other branches of the police for support and assistance for developing their intelligence work." Sir Robert Thompson

"The first lesson to be learnt in this type of war (an insurgency or whatever it may be called) is [it is] all embracing and cannot be won by military means alone. If Vietnam did not prove that, Afghanistan certainly did. The military has only one function - to support the civil government." Sir Robert Thompson

"perhaps the major lesson of the Vietnam War is: do not rely on the United States as an ally." -- Sir Robert Thompson

[edit] counter-insurgency

The spelling of "counter-insurgency" and "counterinsurgency" is part of the American English Commonwealth English divide. As the subject (pun intended) is British and "the first major contributor (that is, not a stub) to the article"(WP:MOS) used Commonwealth spelling. I have reverted the change.

Google:

• about about 32,000 for counter-insurgency -counterinsurgency site:uk
• about 9,530 for counterinsurgency -counter-insurgency site:uk

Even if one searches on the whole of the Google index the counterinsurgency is only slightly more common:

• about 456,000 for counter-insurgency -counterinsurgency -wikipedia
• about 544,000 for counterinsurgency -counter-insurgency -wikipedia

--Philip Baird Shearer 15:56, 25 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Wordy Dab-ing Suffix

_ _ I've got no beef with the spelling, but the 6 syllables were already unnecessarily long, and going to 8 is worse. Some editors seem unaware that the suffix can be either a term of which the topic is an example, or a relevant context. My preference would be "(Malaya)", but if there is need to be broader than his most famous venue, why wouldn't "(guerillas)" do the job?
_ _ Of course i am making the point bcz i think either of these would be not simply adequate, but better: the job of a title is to be a short handle for referring to something too complex to describe each time interest in it arises, so brevity is inherantly desireable. Long titles take longer to read, even if you don't notice subjectively instantaneous events having different lengths, and parsing the relationship 3 words (or two and a prefix) instead of just reacting to one without parsing it (beyond "OK, that's all) takes unconscious mental effort.
_ _ I feel some hesitation to just move it, since the previous change has just been formally considered (or rather offered for consideration), but i think i'm being overscrupulous in not simply moving it. Further restraint will require arguments against short versions.
--Jerzy•t 18:04, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

I created the original article with the disambiguation of (counter-insurgency expert) so it has not got any longer. Why not create a redirect if you do not like to type 6 syllables. If over time the redirect collects more links then the current "(disambiguation)" then there will be some justification for the move. I am against the (Malaya) or (guerillas) as he was not from Malaya and he was not a guerilla. Putting the article under Sir Robert Thompson would be better than that. If you want to move the article then please place a new WP:RM and see if you can build a consensus for a move.

BTW are you familiar with the pipeing trick if you put a "|" after an article name which ends in brackets the brackes part does not show eg "[[Robert Thompson (counter-insurgency expert)|]]" appears as "Robert Thompson" --Philip Baird Shearer 19:02, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Acording to one of the redirects his full name was R. K. G. Thompson, if we could find out what the initials were then we could place him under his full name doing away with the need for the disambiguation. --Philip Baird Shearer 19:14, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

I have finally found a source his full name was " Robert Grainger Ker Thompson" [1]This souce also includes his date of birth and death. --Philip Baird Shearer 21:51, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] DOB?

Date of birth and death needed.--TGC55 16:35, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

See [2] Thompson | Sir | Robert Grainger Ker | 1916-1992 | Knight | writer --Philip Baird Shearer 21:52, 11 January 2007 (UTC)