Here we go again - fumbling into another war with absolutely no idea how we will get out even if we do come up with a way to measure our expected success or failure.
I find it really difficult to support this action when all I hear from government officials and mainstream commentators is that 'this is right and proper' as if we have some god given moral high ground.
We lost the moral high ground the moment we started selling weapons to the same authoritarian regimes we are punishing for using them now.
Ok, so what if we do nothing and let the civil war play out by iteslf?
Well, then its a far off civil war just like any of the countless others that are going on around the globe at any time. Yes, thousands of innocent people get killed but that is not why we went to war again yesterday, so we can't in good conscience use that as justification.
If we cared so much about the oppression and subsequent slaughtering of innocent civilians in these places, then why have we been sponsoring the same dictators who have been carrying out these atrocities for decades?
How can we even use the excuse that we have to 'stand up for democracy and the rights of oppressed citizens anywhere who seek it'? Are we standing up for democracy when we sell weapons to middle eastern dictators?
I think Edwyn Collins has the answer with regard to our middle eastern policy: Rip it up and Start Again.
I find it really difficult to support this action when all I hear from government officials and mainstream commentators is that 'this is right and proper' as if we have some god given moral high ground.
We lost the moral high ground the moment we started selling weapons to the same authoritarian regimes we are punishing for using them now.
Ok, so what if we do nothing and let the civil war play out by iteslf?
Well, then its a far off civil war just like any of the countless others that are going on around the globe at any time. Yes, thousands of innocent people get killed but that is not why we went to war again yesterday, so we can't in good conscience use that as justification.
If we cared so much about the oppression and subsequent slaughtering of innocent civilians in these places, then why have we been sponsoring the same dictators who have been carrying out these atrocities for decades?
How can we even use the excuse that we have to 'stand up for democracy and the rights of oppressed citizens anywhere who seek it'? Are we standing up for democracy when we sell weapons to middle eastern dictators?
I think Edwyn Collins has the answer with regard to our middle eastern policy: Rip it up and Start Again.
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