Editorial: ​To the delighted enemies of the West, we all seem weak

​So the regime of Bashar Al-Asad has fallen in Syria. ​Not many people outside of that country will know much about Assad except that he is reportedly brutal (which in the end he was).

In Northern Ireland, Syria still seems far away. But this is the latest violent upheaval in a sequence of events that affects us all, going back to the 9/11 attacks in America, which themselves have much of their origins in the 1989 end of the Cold War.

The so-called period of liberal interventionism, in which politicians of the left such as Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, then politicians of the right like George Bush Jr and David Cameron, sought to bring democracy to countries that never had it is over. Soldiers from Northern Ireland lost their lives in the wars that flowed from that policy, including Iraq and Afghanistan.

Now the United States has an incoming president who shamelessly believes in America First, which is akin to the US isolationists of the 1930s. The current situation is nowhere near as dangerous as was Europe before World War Two. But it is perilous nonetheless.

Syria is now ruled by a hardcore Islamist. Russia is likely to get a Ukraine solution that rewards its invasion. China knows America under Trump won’t defend Taiwan in an invasion.

Democracy is in retreat, or certainly not on the rise. With hindsight it was naive and maybe arrogant to think we could import western values to less wealthy nations with cultures alien to ours. But the West, which dominated the 20th century, now seems confused. Woke fads over trans and other issues get ridiculous prominence, and meanwhile none of us can live within a budget. Politicians in Northern Ireland are far from alone in refusing ever to consider either budgetary restraints or increased taxation. Debt in Europe and America spirals.

To the delighted foes of the west, we all seem weak.