With Paul Mason. Yes, indeed, so make the most of it while it lasts.
Could Britain ever fight a just war in Syria alongside Trump?
As Mason says, the answer to that has to be no. Not because Trump, but because we have no business getting involved in other people’s civil wars. Syria is not our business, just as Libya was not our business, just as, frankly, Iraq wasn’t. Indeed, the less we have to do with the whole of the Middle East, the better, frankly. So, no, I have no wish to get dragged into another war. Was Iraq not enough?
The thing about the Muslim world is that you cannot make it better no matter what you do. Quite frankly, evil, secularish despotic leaders tend to be less problematical than evil, fanatical nut jobs who follow an evil barbaric cult, so removing the former to replace them with the latter tends to end in tears, as it has in Iran, Iraq, and Libya and no doubt will in Syria.
I’m afraid I am inclined to agree here. Under most interpretations of Islamic law, God’s law trumps anything that people make, therefore Iron Age barbarism is inescapable while ever the religion is in place and taken at all seriously.
Were we to invade Syria in sufficient force to settle the war there, we would be hailed as liberators for about thirty seconds, until it became clear to each of the opposing sides that their particular flavour of loony wasn’t going to be favoured above all others, then every single combatant there would line up to have a crack at us.
This is the case in all civil wars; you have to let them run until the morons have figured out that war isn’t the answer; about all you can do is temporarily house the refugees (paying the Turks for performing this service would be a very, very good idea indeed) and prevent outside powers from interfering too much.
Apart from that, Trump’s idea of bombarding the most egregious war criminals is about all that can reasonably be done.
Paying the Turks? Isn’t that what we’ve been doing? As a consequence Erdogan has been threatening to ‘release’ waves of refugees across Europe. Better that these unfortunates were housed in a ‘safe’ area of their own country. Not in the West where they have no cultural frame of reference.
As for the cruise missile strike on Syria, that was a waste of ordnance and Trumps first major mistake. Both sides in the Syrian ‘civil’ war are using nerve agent ingredients sold to them by the Saudis and we should let them get on with it, and if said nerve agent comes back to bite the Saudis hard, well, Karma is a bitch, n’est-ce pas?
Listening to Jeremy Corbyn last night I think he has got it right too!
Why do we get involved?
We should ‘thank God’ that we are a land of rain and grass surrounded by rich seas and free of the curse of Islam. What! We’ve been importing them like crazy? We must be mad.
Not our circus, not our monkeys. Syria can sort itself out (and at the same time I am sure there are lots of close-at-hand islamic nations who would be more than happy to help with refugees… um… I think) and indeed so can the muslim world arrange itself. Given that each sect of moh’s bunch has a strong desire is to kill anyone of whichever sect of islam they aren’t, I think it is best to let them just get on with it.
I agree with DocBud; you cannot help them because their mindset is beyond earthly help. Going in with guns blazing and shouting “we’re here to help democracy” is a huge waste of breath and bullets. Islam is dedicated to being against even shred of democracy, so that argument will never wash.
WW@ says better fight them there than fight them here,
A ‘just war’ is defined as a war declared just by the Pope… because wilful killing of another Human Being was not the mortal sin of murder if done in a just war.
A ‘just war’ is defined as a war declared just by the Pope… because wilful killing of another Human Being was not the mortal sin of murder if done in a just war.