I’ve been whingeing for years that I can’t understand what we’re doing in Afghanistan. Well, now at last I know what we are doing: We are enriching the ChiComs.

While the United States spends hundreds of billions of dollars fighting the Taliban and Al Qaeda here, China is securing raw material for its voracious economy. The world’s superpower is focused on security. Its fastest rising competitor concentrates on commerce.

Phew! For a while there I thought we were shoveling all that money into the Hundu Kush for no good reason at all.