The British vote to Bomb Syria. . . . . A viewpoint

Yesterday the British Government voted to join the massed forces of the Good the Bad and the Ugly in the Bombing the Islamic terrorist group known as IS, ISIS ISIL (or now something else) in Syria. There have been heated arguments on both sides as to what is the correct thing to do.  Well that is strangely a rather easy question to answer although I am not aware that a single politician actually said it yesterday. You see the fact is there is no right thing to do and no one can truly predict what the outcome would be from either option.

The terrorist group formally known as IS, ISIS,ISIL are a truly bad bunch of people with distorted views and delusions of their own future and afterlife. Bombing them can keep them suppressed but it will not actually destroy the ideology or even totally destroy the group. But not bombing them, folk argue allows them to grow in strength so it is something we have to do.

Now I have been a little annoyed by David Cameron and his less than truthful assessment of what will happen in the long term.  Up till now Britain has been restricted to bombing Iraq, but a key point in that is, the present Iraq government had asked for this assistance. They are not an ideal government but the west smiles and grit’s its teeth and does its bit to help. Britain has now joined a large group bombing Syria against the will of its government, a government supported by President Putin who is also bombing various anti-government forces in Syria including the ones us lot say are the goodies. Most of these other groups have their own agendas and don’t like each other.  So Britain in its own small way (we have not sent a large number of fighters) has joined the continued destruction of an entire country with no long term plan.

   

You see this is where David Cameron has annoyed me, he says that once IS, ISIS, ISIL have been destroyed as a force, something that will involve proper ground troops (not a ramshackle mix of folk who are against the present Syrian government). Then President Assad will quietly go and a new democratic government will run Syria and all will be well. . . . Now I am just a chap out in the hills but even I can see this is not what will happen, President Assad of Syria is not going to quietly walk away while he has the protection of Russia. President Putin of Russia is hardly going to let the West get its way in any negotiations.  There are no Credible Ground forces in Syria except the Pro-Assad Army and even if they were able to take control some of these groups are almost as bad as ISIS. It is very likely that in three of four years time we will still be bombing Syria and looking for a way out or the conflict could escalate into other counties in the Middle East leading to a bigger and more dangerous war.

Plainly doing nothing is not a solution either, but I really think the implication by the British government  that it will all be OK after a couple of years of coalition bombing is misleading the British Public.  Our track record in the Middle East is not good I do not see any countries where we have left them as a happy stable democracy.