Missing the point

I'm keep hearing people say that the war in Afghanistan is "pointless". I don't know why they keep saying that - maybe it's the hope that if they say it often and loudly enough it will become true - but whatever your views or opinions on a war it seems ridiculous to say that it has no point. Even at the very least, the point of the Afghan war is to defeat the enemy. Whether that can be achieved or not is another matter, but if people can't see the point of that then they really aren't trying very hard.

The question they should be asking is why are the Taliban our enemy? The reason, of course, is that Britain has a large, increasingly demanding and assertive Moslem population. Moslems are different to most people as they usually identify themselves first and foremost by their religion. Their first allegiance is not to a specific nation or a particular community, but to Islam - and this doesn't change.

So what happens in Moslem countries matters to them - and if a Moslem does something which they believe furthers the cause of Islam then they are generally supportive of it even if it is to the detriment of their host nation or the nation of their birth. It's actually quite often the case that those who claim that what happens in Afghanistan is nothing to do with us are often the same people who seem to think that the "plight" of the Palestinians is something to do with us. Why? Some sort of colonial responsibility? If that is the case then the same could be said for Afghanistan - or Iraq or Pakistan.

As long as we have a large Moslem population in Britain then what happens in any Moslem country will have an impact on our nation and we may well be required to act in some way. I don't necessarily like it, but at least I can see the point.

I'd just like to qualify all of that by pointing out that I don't believe we owe the Afghans anything - we don't owe them peace, we don't owe them democracy, we don't owe them prosperity, we don't owe them freedom, liberty or even hope. As long as what happens in Afghanistan stays in Afghanistan they can do what they like - but as long as we have a large Moslem population living in this country then that will never be the case.