So what if you've been a traitor? Well, it happens ...

A schoolgirl somehow passed unchallenged through immigration, passports and security at an international airport here - a girl who was obviously a schoolgirl, I want to emphasise - and who

looked decidedly Muslim at a time when recruiting by Islamic State was very much in the news.

I understand she had no parents, not an adult with her, and yet was able to pass through to journey off to join Islamic State terrorists.

Now nearly four years later, aged 19, and the mother apparently of two dead children but with a fresh baby, wants to return ‘home’.

Who was Islamic State fighting? You and me, and just about the world.

Despicable act

In the education of my upbringing, in school, in scouts, in National Service training for Vietnam, her performance would be considered the stuff of traitors.

The most despicable act a man could be guilty of, we learned, was to side with the country’s enemies….   Continues on the blogs for my ocean adventuring book, Sailing to Purgatory, at http://sailingtopurgatory.com/index.php/feeds/350-so-what-if-you-ve-been-a-traitor-well-it-happens