So the American House of Representatives, that august body once capable of serious deliberation, has rebuked President Trump over his Iran war powers. And what does Britain do? It urges restraint.
The same Britain that once instructed the world on matters of empire and power now plays the concerned parent, wagging a finger at a petulant child. How far we have fallen. The vote in the House, a 224-194 condemnation of Trump's approach, is a symptom of something deeper: the West's collective loss of nerve.
The Roman Republic, in its terminal phase, saw similar spectacles: senators grandstanding over limited wars while the barbarians gathered at the gates. The parallels are unbearable. We have exchanged the clarity of imperial purpose for the muddle of procedural bickering.
The British response, a diplomatic plea for 'restraint', is equally pathetic. A nation that once deployed the Royal Navy to enforce its will now offers polite suggestions. This is the intellectual decadence I have long warned about.
We no longer understand power, only the fear of its misuse. The result is paralysis in the face of an Iranian regime that respects only strength. The vote is not about Trump, it is about us—a civilisation that has forgotten how to act.
Britain urges restraint because it has nothing else to give, having surrendered its own sovereignty to the European Union and international law. The irony is bitter: the very institutions designed to prevent war now prevent the exercise of will. We are witnessing the death rattle of the Enlightenment, a slow, dignified decline into irrelevance.
The West should take note: when you cannot even discipline a minor power like Iran without a congressional vote and a British scolding, you have already lost.
