This gruesome event changed everything.
The grisly beheading of an American journalist by a British jihadist plumbed new depths of depravity in the Middle East mayhem.
It also sends a frightening threat of revenge to those who take up arms against Islamic State terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
British support for US air strikes against the insurgents increases the risk of terror attacks here at home.
The stakes are rising at a dizzying pace.
It’s a pity that events had to take such a macabre turn for David Cameron to realise that his place was in Downing Street, not on a beach in Cornwall.
And a scandal that he could only take a break of less than 24 hours before he was strapping on his sandals again.
He’s playing the warrior-premier rather than dealing with this unfolding crisis. The situation requires a strategy. The Government hasn’t got one.
We’ve been here before. Tony Blair’s ill-fated invasion of Iraq in 2003 led directly to the 7/7 atrocity two years later in London, which claimed 52 lives.
This time, political handling of the crisis has been criminally casual.
Cameron sent in the SAS against the Islamic State terrorists without consulting Parliament. RAF Tornados are on reconnaissance missions over the insurgents.
Field Marshal Cameron did it the sly way, as you might expect, in a newspaper article, but nobody will be fooled by this cloak of deceit. Britain is being sucked into an open-ended military commitment.
“Pushing back” the Islamic State, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond calls it.
Effectively, war.
The road to conflict is paved with good intentions. Public opinion certainly supports humanitarian aid for refugees fleeing for their lives, and probably backs intelligence-gathering for US air strikes.
But we have no idea where all this is going, because the Government has no idea where it’s all going.
And war is too important to be left to the whims of a handful of politicians, however clever they think they are.
This is a matter for Parliament, not just for Cameron’s cronies.
MPs should have been recalled to Westminster to debate this critical issue. Instead, they’re on holiday like our playboy Prime Minister, until next month.
What a way to run a government in time of danger!
We cannot have a repeat of Blair’s 2003 debacle. If this country is going to war, then it must be with all the facts out in the open and with the clear, unambiguous approval of Parliament.
And this time, no lies, no dodgy dossiers and no bullying of MPs.
Read more from Paul Routledge here