Obama’s war

One of the first things David Cameron will tell Barack Obama when they meet during the American President’s state visit to Britain next week is that hundreds of British soldiers are going to be withdrawn from Afghanistan this summer. Of the 10,000 British troops currently based in southern Afghanistan, around 450 are to be brought home, with the promise of more to follow, as Mr Cameron cashes in the peace dividend he believes will accrue following the welcome demise of the world’s most infamous terrorist.

Huzzah, I hear you cry. And about time too. Never understood what we were doing there in the first place. What’s the point of our young men and women risking their lives or, more to the point, their limbs in this godforsaken country where the locals quite understandably take great exception to our unwelcome meddling in their affairs? Which, of course, is exactly the response Mr Cameron is anticipating.