Here we go again. Cameron’s latest declaration from the NATO summit is clearly hinting his intention of joining the US on air strikes against ISIS positions in Syria as well as in Iraq. This stance is legalised by claiming that the Iraqi government has called for these strikes, which is true, and that president Assad’s […]
Posts Tagged ‘Syria’
Cameron, over-hasty as always on rhetoric, has to retreat over action on ISIS
Sep 3rd, 2014 by Michael Meacher.Cameron on Friday was waxing bellicose about a “greater and deeper threat to our security than we have known before” because of ISIS. Compared with Hitler in 1939? Compared with the IRA during the 1980-90s? But Cameron’s statement to the House yesterday was remarkable not only for the way he has been forced to backtrack […]
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Unravelling a century of imperialism in Iraq
Jun 23rd, 2014 by Jeremy Corbyn.William Hague has announced there will be no new British military involvement in Iraqand the PM himself gave a guarded answer when asked why he voted for the war in 2003 — something along the lines of, if I knew then what I know now things might be different. The massive media interest in the situation […]
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There are big lessons to be learnt from the Iran deal
Nov 26th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The US-Iran agreement, albeit temporary, may well be the diplomatic coup of the decade, or indeed the biggest peaceful shifting of the tectonic plates since the last World War in the most dangerous area on the planet. But it is as well, for future reference, to identify the specific mechanisms which allowed this breakthrough to […]
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Has Ed Miliband given the world a chance for peace?
Sep 27th, 2013 by Andy Newman.It is worth recalling the words of Ed Miliband about Syria in his recent conference speech The other week I faced [a] decision about whether the country should go to war. The biggest decision any leader faces, the biggest decision any Parliament faces, the biggest decision any party faces. All of us were horrified by […]
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Is Russia now in charge of Middle East policy?
Sep 17th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.The US has been comprehensively outmanoeuvred over Syria. First, the Commons vote induced Obama to seek a vote in Congress to shore up his authority to take military action against the background that US public opinion shared UK public opinion in resisting any further intervention in the Middle East. Then as uncertainty grew about the […]
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Why climate change helped trigger the Syrian civil war
Sep 14th, 2013 by Clive Lewis.Watching events in Syria you can’t help but be thoroughly disturbed. Massacres, chemical weapons usage, millions displaced, mass destruction and a death toll approaching an estimated 100,000. Although well into the 21st century the old bloody habits of the 20th seem reluctant to let go. But as events unfold in Syria I fear we are witnessing […]
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The West is too riddled with self interest to lead on Syria or other world affairs
Sep 5th, 2013 by Michael Meacher.Obama’s key line that the attack on Syria would be a short, surgical strike was designed to win over those who were appalled at Assad’s (virtually certain) use of chemical weapons and wanted him to be punished, but without risk of another long war. His latest deviation from this line – that the missile strike […]
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The spectre of Iraq
Sep 3rd, 2013 by Mike Phipps.When commentators claimed after last week’s parliamentary vote that Iraq had played a key role in motivating MPs to vote against military intervention, it was an important public acknowledgment of the ongoing disaster wrought by US-UK foreign policy. Gone was the New Labour narrative that Iraq today is better off than under Saddam Hussein. Although […]
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Syria vote: celebrate but don’t forget to evaluate
Sep 3rd, 2013 by David Pavett.After the Commons recall debate on Syria some commentators seem to have let their joy at seeing Cameron defeated get a little out of hand.. The defeat was important and all of us on the left are hoping that it will help Ed Miliband to be bolder and to challenge the neo-liberal ideas which still […]
