Scottish Socialist Party national spokesperson Colin Fox today rejected David Cameron’s plan to bomb ISIS in Syria describing the Prime Minister’s proposals as no better than the case comprehensively rejected two years ago.
Colin Fox said: “Two years ago David Cameron made a similar ill-thought out and dangerous case for launching air strikes on Syria. That time it was to help the self-styled ‘Free Syrian Army’ oust Bashir al-Assad. Today he argues for bombing Assad’s jihadist enemies the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant [ISIS]”
“The current bombing campaign which Cameron is desperate to join, Operation Inherent Resolve, has launched 8,289 air strikes so far and flown some 57,301 sorties. Yet none of this ordinance has halted the atrocities in the region or in the streets of Paris and beaches of Tunisia. Indeed it has undoubtedly led to the indiscriminate killing of thousands of innocent Syrian civilians.”
“The conflict in Syria is a complex, multi-faceted civil war with geo-political power brokers pulling the strings behind the scenes. On the ground it is largely a conflict being fought out between the Syrian Army of Assad and ISIL. David Cameron’s beloved ‘rebels’ in the ‘Free Syrian Army’ may have the backing of the West, of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and The Gulf States but they are ‘weak as water’ militarily. Cameron’s claim that they have 70,000 ground troops is no more than wishing thinking.
“Serious commentators like Patrick Cockburn and Robert Fisk liken the civil war in Syria to ‘three dimensional chess’. Cameron on the other hand wants to play ‘regime change’ the illegal game so beloved by his predecessor the war criminal Tony Blair. His goal is to replace Assad with a western patsy. Russia, Iran and Hezbollah are unlikely to be so obliging.”
“The truth is air strikes will not change the position on the ground nor make UK citizens any safer at home. It has more to do with keeping up the pretence Britain is a world power than any serious attempt to solve the Syrian crisis.”
“How many innocent Syrians will be killed by these British air strikes while sitting in their restaurants, cafes, concert halls and football ground [just like Paris]? And how counter-productive is that for peace and democracy in the Middle East?”
“The 8,300 air strikes in Iraq and Syria have not stopped ISIL. That tells you how effective they are. The likelihood of ‘mission creep’ therefore is strong as air strikes fail and more belligerent military action is demanded.”
“It is for all these reasons the Scottish Socialist Party is not persuaded by David Cameron’s case for UK air strikes in Syria. We do not see what progress will be made towards a political solution in Syria this way and we will not support Britain meddling in another war in the Middle East, one it did much to foment.”
Contact – Ken Ferguson: 078925 613145