Flat-footed hokey-cokey war dance

ONE of the timeless lessons of warfare is stark and clear and non-debatable.

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Go back as far as you like. Punic wars. Trojan wars. Caveman wars.You're either in or you're out. A combatant or a neutral. There's no in-between. You can't fight a war halfheartedly, one hand self-tied behind your own back.

War isn't some kind of weaponised hokey-cokey; you put your left sword in, your left sword out, in, out, in, out, shake it all about. War is all or nothing. Kill or be killed. Winner takes all. Watch from the sidelines if you like. But don't scurry on and off the field of battle. That's a loser's charter. And, frankly, contemptible.

But that's exactly what, to its everlasting shame, the UK has done this past week. Vacillated. Hesitated.

Changed its mind. Turned this way and that. Done the hokey-cokey in the Middle East so comprehensively no one knows where we really stand.