Gutless. The stench of appeasement

[Mich the Tester]

Nope the intervening bloke in this case is the USA (and Britain hanging on their coattails trying to be "Great") wading into the brawl as a have a go hero without waiting for the cops (the UN). The other thing to remember is this is not our neighbour having a fight, it's a distant country with a culture which is quite different to ours.

Actually it was the French president, Hollande, that was first among the big democracies to suggest and support intervention.

[KentPhilip]

One question that has not been asked is why is Assad attacking his fellow countryman ("the rebels")?
The answer, presumably, is that they the rebels are attacking him.

Isn't one solution therefore for "the rebels" to stop rebelling? Indeed the fact that they have now been attacked with chemical weapons should perhaps give them cause to consider doing this?

[doodab]

I think there are some compelling arguments against trying to do the "right" thing.

Firstly, what ever we do it's almost certainly going to be futile and may well make the problem worse. I think those invading Iraq & Afghanistan sincerely believed they would be in and out quickly and leave them better places. This was obviously terribly misguided, and the fact is no one has a clue how to do it "properly" so Syria could become just another failed experiment in that regard.

Secondly we are a supposedly democratic nation, if the will of the people is to stand by and watch then that is what we do.

Finally, this is quite probably a precursor to a wider regional conflict which we will be unable to prevent. One newspaper article characterised it as the middle east's equivalent of the Spanish civil war. So any action we take now could have far reaching consequences. Of course, inaction may well have far reaching consequences too.

[minestrone]

The guy is gassing his own people FFS and folk are standing about in a hands up watching a pub fight "best not to get involved mate" kind of way.

Shocking.

[Mich the Tester]

The guy is gassing his own people FFS and folk are standing about in a hands up watching a pub fight "best not to get involved mate" kind of way.

Shocking.

It is indeed shocking, and there are many examples of non-intervention that could be called shocking. What I find more even more shocking is the damage to the US and UK's public's trust that has been done by the filthy lying scum that preceded Mr Cameron and Mr Obama.

Anyway, let's see what another vote brings after the UN inspectors have done their job.

[Mich the Tester]

I think those invading Iraq & Afghanistan sincerely believed they would be in and out quickly and win them big pay-outs from Halliburton.

ftfy

[Wanderer]

Do you actually know what the 'Great' in Great Britain means? It doesn't sound like it.

In this context it is a play on words referring to the way that a small country like the United Kingdom punches well above it's weight on the world stage, UN Security Council etc due to the weight of it's colonial history and it's nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, aligning ourselves with the USA makes the country look more like a poodle of one of its ex-colonies rather than re-enforcing its image of greatness.

[Mich the Tester]

Finally, this is quite probably a precursor to a wider regional conflict which we will be unable to prevent.

Indeed. I think the revolutions in Northern Africa showed that there's a huge conflict now burning within Arab dictatorships and semi-dictatorships.

[CoolCat]

If I was cynical I would say that the ever rising immigration figures were released yesterday as a good day to bury bad news...

[proggy]

It is indeed shocking, and there are many examples of non-intervention that could be called shocking. What I find more even more shocking is the damage to the US and UK's public's trust that has been done by the filthy lying scum that preceded Mr Cameron and Mr Obama.

Anyway, let's see what another vote brings after the UN inspectors have done their job.

Will there be another vote though? Seems like UK getting involved in Syria over this issue is off the table.

I hope there is another vote when the evidence is in however if the yanks have already intervened by then it would seem a bit pointless.