By Lloyd Levy
LONDON — By the time this article is published, the “West”may be at war with Syria. Or rather, the “West” minus the UK, whose Parliament members made very clear to the Government that they wanted nothing to do with military involvement in yet another Middle East country.
In the UK, we are still haunted by the lies told to us by Tony Blair’s Government, regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We no longer wish to be manipulated and misinformed about nasty weapons and false intelligence. We do not trust our leaders when they assure us that they know what they are doing. We have become deeply cynical.
I myself remember clearly, the Defence Minister in Tony Blair’s former Government assuring us that we are going into Afghanistan to help, and that not a shot will be fired in anger. What another lie that turned out to be.
The war against Libya was supposed to not be a campaign to overthrow Ghadaffi- who believes that now ?
There are too many “corners of foreign fields that are forever England” in Iraq and Afghanistan. Too many deaths and injuries, too much money has been wasted in those ungrateful lands. The military campaigns have arguably been a military failure anyway.
The Prime Minister was not able to articulate to Parliament , good reasons for us getting involved again.
He merely stated that it was a judgment call, and we were to trust him in his decision. The Intelligence report was extremely non committal also. After Iraq and the “dodgy dossier,” it is simply expecting too much that we should be manipulated again by a leader in a rush to War. At least John Kerry was able to articulate good strategic reasons why the USA should act against Syria, namely that allies around the world, such as Israel, Gulf States, South Korea etc, need to be able to trust USA guarantees. David Cameron made no such claims, merely trying to leverage the scene of the gas attack, to push for war. People ask why we didn’t go to war in Darfur, or Rwanda, or Chechnia, or when hundreds are killed in Egypt.; etc etc. ?
So the UK is not going to join in the War directly. Yet although the decision is welcome by the British public, it is a political earthquake that will have serious implications for our diplomatic status in the World, and for the future of David Cameron’s Government.
I would be very surprised if David Cameron’s reputation, such as it is anyway, can recover from the ineptitude and lack of clear leadership, shown in the last few days. Ironically, he will have been brought low by the poisonous Iraqi legacy of his former political opponent Tony Blair and the previous Labour Government.
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Levy is a freelance writer who divides his time between the United Kingdom and Israel. He may be contacted at lloyd.levy@sdjewishworld.com