So the parliament has, to everyone’s shock, voted against
military adventures in Syria.
That’s a relief.
As to “intelligence reports” that they keep waving us
saying that they prove whatever? I don’t care.
I don’t care because I am unable to believe them. They could be true. They could be false. They could be created from sheer ineptitude. They could be deliberately falsified to deceive us. The “intelligence services” have no credibility
We went to war in Iraq – an utter debacle – because of
the peddled words of the “intelligence services.” In the aftermath no-one has
faced any public consequences for the lying or (if I’m giving them vast benefit
of the doubt) extreme incompetence. Without that I cannot assume any
significant change has taken place – so the words of the intelligence services
become meaningless. There is no point in listening to a liar – and it is an act
of utter foolishness to trust one.
But surely I cannot doubt chemical weapons have been
used?
True, I don’t. But nor do I think that the US & UK
swooping in dropping bombs on people is actually going to make that better. I
desperately want chemical weapons not to exist, I desperately want the war to
end and I do wish we could intervene – but I
do not trust us to do so!
Through ineptitude, malice, selfishness or a complete
inability to examine the world through any other lenses than our own, our “intervention”
is hardly the benevolent force we seem to think. I do not think we are CAPABLE
of making things better. I also doubt very much whether our leaders WANT to
make things better – at least for the people of Syria. We use words like “democracy”,
“freedom” and “human rights” a lot and leave bodies, dictators and torture in
our wake.
As to this somehow doing terribad damage to Britain’s “reputation”
or making us look “weak”.
Really?