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Don't know if people have seen or heard Hillary Benn's speech from yesterday but here it is below.
The arousing and oratorical part of the speech that gained the headlines and applause starts at about 12 mins 10 secs into it.
I can't imagine us adding to the bombing of Syria will add much (or make things worse for us) in any significant way - we are already bombing Iraq so we are already not on IS and their followers Christmas card list and it as already acknowledged that bombing alone wont defeat them.
I guess it is all about a gesture more than anything else following the Paris massacre.
It didn't really make sense bombing IS in Iraq and not Syria, so the logical thing to do would have been either stop the current bombing or bomb them both.
I know whichever side people are on they view things their own way but I think the clearly attempted genocide of the Yazidi people really did mean that someone needed to stop this madness from spreading.
Whether the western world should be doing it is another thing but it does bring to mind this following poem -
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemoller.
Have we done the right thing or the wrong thing?
The arousing and oratorical part of the speech that gained the headlines and applause starts at about 12 mins 10 secs into it.
I can't imagine us adding to the bombing of Syria will add much (or make things worse for us) in any significant way - we are already bombing Iraq so we are already not on IS and their followers Christmas card list and it as already acknowledged that bombing alone wont defeat them.
I guess it is all about a gesture more than anything else following the Paris massacre.
It didn't really make sense bombing IS in Iraq and not Syria, so the logical thing to do would have been either stop the current bombing or bomb them both.
I know whichever side people are on they view things their own way but I think the clearly attempted genocide of the Yazidi people really did mean that someone needed to stop this madness from spreading.
Whether the western world should be doing it is another thing but it does bring to mind this following poem -
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Martin Niemoller.
Have we done the right thing or the wrong thing?
