Are we yet ready to think the unthinkable?

If I were to suggest to you a course of action that would solve the ongoing crisis in the Middle East; would make everyone on the planet safer than they are now; would give women the same access to education, opportunity and justice as men, wherever they are in the world...

Would stop people killing each other for no real reason other than their greed; would enable people to work towards a better life for themselves and their families through peace, would end poverty and allow everyone on the planet the option of working hard to better themselves...

You'd probably think I was mad or some kind of liberal leftie with a communist leaning or someone with no grip on reality.

And you may well be right - I don't think so - but let's see.

A simple yet complex question for you: Can you impose freedom on people? Or is that an oxymoron - a completely contradictory concept?

'You might not think you need this, but you do, and we're going to take control of your life in order to give you the freedom that you need.' 

Sounds laughable really when one puts it in that way. But look a little more closely.

I am no fan of the ever more controlling governments of the West. Of increased surveillance, tighter controls over what we read, watch and say; of the widening gap between what voters want and what governments actually do. And I think we need to re-establish the client (us) - government relationship as soon as possible. They are supposed to work for us after all.

But I would argue that the West offers considerably more in the way of freedom, to everyone regardless of gender, race or background than any other political system. Of course there are laws but they seem generally to be fair and to have been arrived at through a thorough, proper and lengthy period of testing. In essence, if you play by the rules and pay your taxes, you can enjoy quite a high level of freedom in your life in terms of what you do, how you earn a living, where you go, what you do in your spare time, etc.

A lot of people in less fortunate societies around the world would fight to the death to achieve the freedoms we take for granted as our 'rights'.

And many are doing so.

And that's the problem.

At it's worst, past colonisation was exploitative of people and their country's resources. It was about growing a power base, about benefiting from the resources - sometimes, sadly, in the form of human resources as slaves. At it's best it brought huge benefit to those countries in the form of law and order, peace, trade and opportunity.

At it's best British colonisation (and I'm sure there are echoes in other countries' actions) was effective in sharing and exporting the lessons we had learned from our history; our sometimes painful and bloody process of arriving at a better, freer and fairer system of governance. Effectively we were short-circuiting or 'fast tracking' the development of other countries' methods of governing and legal systems because we had been there and done that, and knew what worked and what was (largely) fair and equitable.

In effect, having gone through that sometimes painful process, we were like the 'grown-ups' sharing our knowledge and experience with the 'children' who weren't yet experienced enough to understand why our laws and systems made sense and would be of benefit to them.

And in India, the USA & Canada, Australia, New Zealand and others, the base-board of British freedoms and laws have resulted in prosperity and relative harmony even after the original colonising power has retreated from the stage, having embedded the values of this experience of which I speak, in their legislature and ways of life.

OK so here's the controversial bit. You knew it was coming.

Instead of lobbing a few Tomahawks into Syria as a slap on the wrist to Assad for killing 1,500 of his own people with chemicals (even if I have serious doubts as to whether this is true); and having been unmoved while 100,000 people have been killed in that conflict over the past two years by 'conventional' arms; why don't we, instead, do something that will actually solve the problem?

We went into Afghanistan, conquered the oppressive Taliban and then effectively handed back power to the 'children'. We did the same in Iraq, took control and then handed it back to people who were not equipped intellectually or in terms of control, to run the place. In both cases the former tribal groups re-emerged - the 'children' if you will - and off we go again.

In my view the only way to sort these places out is to take over. Properly and completely. To ruthlessly impose our laws, to dictate what they can and can't do. To run these countries as colonies until the children understand how it all works, adopt our values, afford their citizens the freedoms that we take for granted, respect the rights of everyone, especially including women, and essentially grow up and become citizens of the world instead of terrorists and bullies in their own backwaters.

And if this means banning the biggest weapon of mass destruction of them all - religion, and in particular Islam - then so be it. People are only drawn to a better life in the hereafter because they have such a shit life in the here and now. And they have such a shit life in the here and now because they are constantly at war, killing each other because they are being tricked by ruthless people who use religion to brainwash them into doing stuff that their basic humanity would abhor.

It's time we stopped bombing these 'children' and started to help them. Truly help them, with force if necessary - and believe me it is necessary. It's time to solve the problem once and for all, not just to carry on making arms manufacturers richer and achieving nothing. We are not helping people at the moment, just ensuring that their lives remain as shit as possible for as long as possible. Enough.

Thanks for reading.