Monday 29th June

As yet another day of atrocities passes like a slap in the face of Civilisation the question has to be asked “What does the World do with a problem like Isis?”  Because two things we know for certain, this won’t be the last attack, and if we think this was barbarous we ‘ain’t seen nothing yet.

So, what are the alternatives?   Do nothing, and see a never-ending stream of desperate refugees in camps in Turkey or dying on boats and continuing merciless executions (because that in effect is what we are witnessing) of innocent people whose only crime is that they do not adhere to the same radical religious tenets as the self-proclaimed executioners.  Or do we join America in even more bombing or indeed a land campaign.  Oh dear no, remember Iraq; which of course has been used as the justification for the Islamic state anyway.  The idea of some grand coalition of the good is also a non-starter; who is to decide just who is good.  Leave it to other Muslim nations perhaps, but would we not be possibly inviting even more bloodshed and a mighty war between Iran and the Saudis, who may or may not soon be nuclear weapon-ised.  And if we simply try to contain them to their mostly desert Caliphate this will do nothing about the infectious nature of the beast, where young men and women from all over Europe and even America are inspired to go and fight, or even worse to commit atrocities in the West themselves.

I think the World is crying out for some real leadership, some politician strong enough to take this to the UN and really get an overwhelming agreement to sort ISIS out militarily for good.  Only we seem more interested in continuing the current spat with Russia, with both sides escalating a regional dispute out of all proportion; the solution to the Ukraine is to hold UN controlled regional plebiscites and let the people decide which country they want to belong to.  But Democracy seems the last thing on everyone’s mind; even in the Greek debt crisis when the Greek Government has said that the Greek people must decide on the bail-out conditions there has been a shock horror reaction; you cannot possibly let uneducated people decide on such matters.  We may see in a few days time just who blinks first on that one.

Ask ordinary people?  I really wish our politicians would.