The news from Colombia is grim. A civil war, brutal and unrelenting, now seeps into the presidential race, with the UK Embassy issuing dire warnings of regional instability. One cannot help but draw comparisons to the late Roman Republic, where provinces burned while senators bickered.
Today, we see a similar spectacle: a nation torn apart by violence, its leaders more concerned with poll numbers than peace. The Colombian government, weak and vacillating, has allowed Marxist guerrillas and drug cartels to carve up the country like a Christmas goose. And what does the West do?
It wrings its hands, issues statements, and hopes the problem goes away. But history teaches us that empires which neglect their periphery invite collapse. The UK, once a master of global秩序, now merely posts travel advisories.
This is not statesmanship; it is abdication. The Colombian tragedy is a mirror: a world where savagery thrives because the civilised lack the will to confront it. The presidential race there becomes a charade, a distraction from the rot.
We should pay attention, for the fall of Rome did not begin in the Senate—it began on the frontier.