Ukraine’s second city, Kharkiv, is further away from London than Tripoli, but there is still a sense that the Russian military advances in Ukraine are closer to home than anything happening in North Africa.
For all the political outrage that has poured out of Western capital cities in the last few days, the story is the same as the one we have seen in the past decade in Libya, Syria and Afghanistan.
It is no wonder that the Defence Secretary said there was a whiff of Munich in the air, or that George Osborne recently said: “the humiliating retreat from Kabul and the appalling famine looming there is teaching this political generation the heavy price we pay for our absence.”
When will we learn that “Do Nothing” does more harm than good?
Rupert Wieloch 