Letter: Britain should learn lessons from the past and be more pragmatic
Again we are poised on the brink of another fatal intervention abroad, after the Iraq and Afghanistan fiascos we, Britain, are again coached and schooled by our political masters into military folly, this time Syria.
An intervention in Syria at this time or at any time, given the most unpleasant nature of the protagonists, would seem, at best, most unwise. Mr Cameron has told us that an intervention would send a clear message to President Assad that the use of chemical weapons will not be tolerated. It might.
It will also lend succour to his opposition whose declared politics are anything other than democratic and in many instances the equal of Assad's brutal regime. Mr Cameron's gesture is simply self-serving. The British government is yet again trying to punch above its weight, playing the easy instant game rather than concentrating on the much more profound domestic issues.
If we have learned one thing from our various foreign interventions it is that the western powers cannot force political change upon a people.
British, American and French intervention at this time may have real purpose and legitimacy were we supporting a fledgling democracy, further it is by no means clear who released chemical agents upon the civil population.
Assad is winning the war and there is legitimate argument to suggest that he absolutely did not need to use WMDs, In doing so, he merely risked further international condemnation, quite apart from the real possibility of direct military intervention against him from western military powers.
Syria is a state closely aligned with Russia, we should learn the lessons of the past and be rather more pragmatic in our approach to international affairs, the key here surely is Mr Putin. Therein may lie many opportunities for further international cooperation to the betterment of humanity.
Mark Jarrold, Ludlow
