So it looks like we are going to bomb Syria because, well I think it is because of mythical red lines and to show we mean business and well we’ve got all these missiles and you’ve got to do something with them. I think this is the argument that our rulers are coming up with. Now I’m not defending the use of chemical weapons but I always find the outrage at their use just a little baffling – why are they so bad when compared to say a car bomb? The people are dead, the relatives moan and scares are burnt into the hearts but Chemical weapons are worse.
Nor am I trying to defend the Assad regime which seem pretty reprehensible and everything you wouldn’t want your government to be. It’s just didn’t we do this a couple of years ago in Libya and didn’t that work out so well – we now have a whole region destabilised and some of the worse people armed to the teeth as a result of our meddling. Now multiply that 10 fold and I think this is the horror show we about to step into and for what?
Surely if we were serious about sorting out the monsters of the world we should be bombing North Korea back to the stone age – which probably most of its population wouldn’t notice. They are, after all, the one country who has weapons of mass destruction who have threatened to use them on the outside world – countless thousands of their population have staved to death without any UN food parcels getting to them or tents or any other support. But this is not on the agenda Syria is.
I’ve yet to hear one single argument to suggest how bombing the Syrians is going to help matters. This morning it was suggested that it would force the Syrian government to negotiate a settlement but this isn’t going to happen because there has been too much blood spilt and this is a medieval fight to the death on both sides – no one wants to surrender because the consequences will be almost certain death. Yet we think we can sort this out because we’ve made such a great job of it in the past – modern Syria is a product of our colonial meddling and didn’t we do such a good job then. But of course we are all post imperialists now and we only want to defend human rights is another cry from the government – by killing people.
Syria is a right royal mess which we don’t understand yet feel we can meddle from off shore with our high tech weapons of war. But when these weapons of war don’t work you know what the next cry will be for – humanitarian military support for the Free Syrian Army i.e. boots on the ground and what if the Russians feel the same about their long term friend the Syrian Government. Then What?
Simon Marchini
Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk
