Pretty much everything related to William Elphinstone's command of the British army in Afghanistan in 1841-1842. First when he did nothing in response to a riot in Kabul that stormed the home of a senior political officer and killed him and his staff. This resulted in the unrest in the city escalating out of control, forcing the British to evacuate just as winter was setting in. He tried to negotiate safe passage with the son of the leader the British had deposed several years earlier, and his representative was massacred, with the diplomat's mutilated body dragged through the streets of Kabul.
Again, Elphinstone did nothing. In fact, he tried to negotiate with Wazir Akbar Khan again, agreeing to hand over his gunpowder stores, his cannon and a good number of his available muskets. Once his army got moving, they were attacked almost immediately, and Akbar had again neglected to provide the escort, food or fuel he'd promised. The British were only a day out from Kabul at this point, but Elphinstone insisted on continuing forward without sufficient provisions instead of holing up in the Bala Hissar fortress to wait for spring. What did he do instead? Negotiate with Akbar again, of course.
This time, Akbar denied any wrongdoing or malfeasance on his part, and asked Elphinstone to wait in his indefensible and rapidly freezing position while he negotiated safe passage. You know, again. And Elphinstone did so, and even offered up some of his officers as hostages, one assumes because he'd run out of cannons to hand the enemy instead. Eventually they moved forward again, and were attacked by more Afghans, now armed with the same weapons the British had handed over previously.
The British took heavy casualties, both from the fighting and from the cold, not to mention several hundred men who deserted and made a run for Kabul, only to also get massacred. Fast forward a few days and a lot more guerilla attacks, frostbite, and hostage taking, and a column of 4500 troops and 14000 civilians had been whittled down to around 200 men. They had dug in and, thanks to Elphinstone having abandoned all pretense of commanding them, were giving the attacking Afghans heavy resistance. The general and his second met with Akbar for negotiations yet again, and one assumes Akbar had also gotten tired of this same song and dance by now, because when Elphinstone asked to return to his troops, Akbar just went "Lol, nope."
In the end, a single wounded doctor riding a dead man's pony was the only one who struggled his way through to Jalalabad to tell the garrison just what the hell had happened. Afterwards, even the pony laid down in the stable and never got up again.
