Bit Of A Climb Down Over Syria....

[Zacs-Master]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10272555/Cameron-backs-down-on-urgent-Syria-strikes.html

[jno]

Incidentally: there are still 22 countries Britain has never invaded; maybe we should be trying some of them?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9653497/British-have-invaded-nine-out-of-ten-countries-so-look-out-Luxembourg.html

[ichkeria]

Eight becomes one, then, to misquote the Spice Girls. I think the second Gulf War is the only example. Tho what that proves I'm not sure. Can't find any others. The first Gulf War, highly ironically, is now only criticised for 'not going far enough'. Whether it remained unfinished is a matter of opinion. At the time the primary objective was achieved and there was a reluctance to overstep that.

[emmie]

we go in at our peril. Think what this will do to the fanatics in our midst, more ammo about the imperial west, and forcing our ways onto foreign countries, can't you see the headlines ?

[1ndex]

there all murderers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxkDlTAsSk4

[ichkeria]

Interesting article that jno and an intriguing bit of "cod" history.

[humbersloop]

Sorry, just back in and I'm putting my hands up for poor geography, but not resileing the position.

Try collective adventures in Iran, Iraq, Libya, Mali, Sudan and Afghanistan, with drone attacks on Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan for good measure. In common with this Syrian proposition, none of them with any overarching objectives, just tactics, and none with a robust exit strategy.

The idea that we now wade into a civil war within which other sectarian and regional proxy wars are being played out for a whim or a posture - I'm discounting "principle" here as we're still arming the Egyptian military coup that killed at least five hundred people recently, though granted not with gas - is imo plain bonkers.

[237SJ]

I haven`t seen news coverage in the UK as I haven`t been here but from what I have seen, countries in the Mid East seem to be behind some kind of intervention in Syria. The Qataris are saying that America should have intervened 2 years ago (why that job is left up to America is another question). The UN inspectors' job is to ascertain whether or not chemical weapons have been used but not to say who by. As the US says, a line has been crossed when innocent civilians are being subjected to chemical weapons and I don`t see how that fact can be ignored by the West.

[LazyGun]

Interesting article by Robert Fisk in the Independent over this issue, setting the context. Though- provoking.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/we-should-have-been-traumatised-into-action-by-this-war-in-2011and-2012but-now-8789506.html

[humbersloop]

I'm sure they are 237SJ, Jordan for example must be well racked off with being everybody else's refugee camp of choice. However

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-23886605


Yes, LG, Fisk makes very valid points.

[ichkeria]

I'm still racking my brain to think of the intervention in Iran.

Yes indeed much of the Arab world is up for intervention in Syria, as is Turkey.
Qatar and Saudi Arabia have been arming the rebels for some time. Those regimes I daresay count as non-fundamentalist dictatorships pro-western dictatoships, but nonetheless the fact that they are doing so gives the lie to the idea that it's always "east v west". And if Russia's role doesn't count as "intervention" I don't know what does. They just got theirs in early :-)
Re the Fisk article, the sentence:
"We should have been traumatised into action by this war in 2011. And 2012. But now? " is spot on. Although what he goes on to say ignores the apparent fact that the US is - so they say - not interested in regime change there. Assad can never win this war - the best he can realistically hope for is to rule his share of a divided country.

[237SJ]

After what Assad has accomplished recently, I think he will eventually go the way of Gaddafi or Saddam Hussein. Ruling a share of a divided country isn`t really an option when you have subjected your populace to chemical weapons.

[naomi24]

I agree. Sharing rule is not an option - but what may follow could be even more worrying. Ultimately the only conclusion I can reach is that they're all stark raving mad!