Afghan Adventure

 Surprise surprise, the closest thing to actual evil on the planet, the conglomeration of fanatical islamists who collectively referred to themselves as Taliban, al-Qaeda, ISIS, et al, are converging on Kabul. Who could have possibly predicted the consequence of the US pulling out, and Britain following closely on their heels?

The UK long ago lost the ability and political stomach to defend its own shores – see the dinghy denizens – so what on earth possessed the then government to send troops out to be slaughtered in the Kush? The region is decades away from safe self-governance, a fact which has been abundantly evident to people who live and work there, and to all but the experts who watch from afar.

Experts again. Actually it is no such thing, I am sure there are genuine experts tearing their hair out at what they are seeing. It is gesture politics, vanity politics, politics as popularity contest and a politics which suits Boris Johnson down to the ground. A lot of arm waving, a lot of hot air, bingo-bongo, by jingo and in the end… nothing. Pomposity and posturing; Parliament is little more than a chimps’ tea party now; a show to dazzle the little people.

While despotic regimes slaughter their dissenters and run roughshod over international treaties, baring their teeth at anybody who dares to intervene, western Governments are powerless to do a single thing unless others let them. The UK administration will do whatever it takes to kow-tow to the US, The EU, the oil companies, big pharma… Let’s just get it out in the open – declare yourselves impotent and then we can declare you all redundant and do the jobs ourselves.

Vigilantism is what happens in the absence of strength. Hatred flourishes when order is abandoned. Hope vanishes with the loss of integrity. And all three of these essential regularities are conspicuous by their lack. An 80-seat majority should allow any government with the will to do so, to restore order and integrity and stand strong against transgressors. Instead we have governance which appears to care far more about how they appear to outside agencies, than what the people of this country think.

The Labour Party has been engaged in a 20-year struggle – often amusing - to alienate their core voters; now the conservatives are doing the same. So think now about defending yourselves because the government, the courts, the police and the armed forces can’t or won’t do what we think we pay them to do. This is not a criticism of those on the front line; everybody knows it is a failure of direction, of leadership, of honest guardianship.

Sooner or later – sooner by all appearances – the islamist cells in Afghan caves are going to take advantage of our chaos and inaction and dinghies will begin to arrive containing armed jihadis. They will eagerly arrive on our pebbly beaches and start mowing down innocent civilians, and fearing nobody, they will keep on shooting until they are taken down. How many will die before our government dares to act?