Like any sensible, educated person, I feel that violence should be avoided at all costs. It should only be used as a last resort, wherever possible: surely there is always an alternative to war, bloodshed, pain and death. Yet I’ve just been watching the news, and today marks a year since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan. Watching events unfold there, I have to wonder, how can we just sit back and watch these religious nutcases wreck a country? The reports coming out of Afghanistan are shocking, with women being totally stripped of their rights, children as young as seven being sold into marriage with one another by their families. While I know how vital it is to respect other cultures, I also see this as an example of the damage religion can do to humanity, and why such zealotry must be eradicated, whatever form it takes. Say what you like about the 2001 invasion in the first place, given that it was the West’s withdrawal from Afghanistan which invited the Taliban to take back control, I just think surely we now have a responsibility to go back and once again relieve these religious nutters from power.