Empire 2.0

A sense of pride and awe has recently been creeping throughout my consciousness. Britain has just upped its military commitment to Afghanistan. It has pledged around 3,000 troops, under a NATO mandate, to help defeat the Taliban and assist development efforts in the south of Afghanistan. This new mission has already claimed six British lives and more deaths are doubtlessly on the way. While fearing that I may sound too much like an American Christian – I am rather proud of the job ‘our boys’ are doing out there.

I like the Afghan war. Compared to the murky waters of Iraq, Afghanistan has a far more clear-cut and civilised agenda. Our troops are fighting Muslim extremism, pure and simple. In expelling such religious bigotry from Afghanistan it is doing its people, and the world in general, a massive favour. Democracy, I believe, is the lesser of evils when it comes to government types and there is no reason why it cannot work along side central Asian and Muslim traditions (democracies change in nature from country to country and culture to culture). It can work in Afghanistan. Yet it is not going to be easy. It will require a massive commitment in time and money from the EU, the US and other concerned powers. It involves nation building from scratch, beginning with the fundamentals – and that includes security of person and property. This is going to be a decade long commitment. Imagine the symbolic significance of turning around one of the poorest nations on earth and carving a stable and growing nation in the middle of turmoil. This is worthy of sacrifice.

Afghanistan, unlike Iraq, is a far more international effort with genuine concern over a real fear (Islamic fundamentalism) and an authentic sense of altruism towards its peoples. Cutting our losses and bringing the troops home is quite possibly the worst thing that could happen for everyone involved (including for our troops who will undoubtedly face a more serious threat in the future should we fail to act now). We need to send more resources to Afghanistan, both military and economic, and the public needs to get right behind them to ensure we stick it out. The Taliban are no fools, they know public opinion is shaky and that British deaths count double in the global PR war. Yet we helped make this mess, and now we need to sort it. Those six men should not have had to die in vain.

p.s I might submit this in my application as a Daily Express Columnist...