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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Should the UK bomb Syria? Yes or no thread.

600 replies

AnotherEffingOrangeRevel · 26/11/2015 13:54

Shall we have a little vote, here and now?

It's a big "no" from me.

OP posts:
FabergeEggs · 26/11/2015 22:32

Yes! Bomb those medieval bastards and stop expecting other nations to make us safe. Do nothing and we're all doomed.

Chipstick10 · 26/11/2015 22:33

So glad we were not so lily livered in the Second World War

Cloudyflower · 26/11/2015 22:34

Yes to air strikes

No to boots on the ground

Longdistance · 26/11/2015 22:36

Can we remove the children first like in WWII, and then bomb away?

Magpie18 · 26/11/2015 22:38

No

BarbarianMum · 26/11/2015 22:39

Chipsticks we didn't win WW2 just by bombing. Hundreds of thousands of men died on the ground.

We fought in Iraq to save Iraqis from tyranny, we bombed Libya to save Libyans from tyranny and the result? ISIL.

WhatWhyHow · 26/11/2015 22:42

No!

vichill · 26/11/2015 22:43

I think hacking groups will be more successful in keeping that foul ideology away from people here in a position to actually harm us.

Whattheydonttellyou · 26/11/2015 22:44

firstly - find out who is bankrolling ISIS/Daish and cut this supply of money off. No money = no bombs/guns.

Secondly - bomb but only identified ISIS targets and not civilians.

Our army/navy/airforce personnel are the best in the world and deserve our full support. There is the risk we will also need troops on the ground. We all need to be behind them if they are asked to face ISIS to defend our freedom.

isitspringyet · 26/11/2015 22:47

Big fat no

CuttedUpPear · 26/11/2015 22:49

No

OldCrowMedicineShow · 26/11/2015 22:49

No

FormerlyKnownasFK · 26/11/2015 23:51

Radical, let's be honest - DC's justification for airstrikes is not in order to save the Syrian people, or anyone else living in close proximity to the Syrian border, from IS.

They are being justified in order to reduce the threat of terrorism in Europe, which many of us believe they won't.

Without consensus from all parties on regime change or not, and commitment to block the the supply of arms, money and supporters to IS, I am doubtful about the UK's involvement at all, and neither of those things are likely to happen.

At the very least I'd want to see evidence of a cohesive strategy for ground troops and how airstrikes would be used to support such a strategy, before I could decide.

So for now, given the above, it's a no.

slicedfinger · 26/11/2015 23:52

No

FlyingGoose · 27/11/2015 00:03

My heart says no, no, no! But, they are truly disgusting savages and something should be done, I can't conceive of anything solving th issue though. It all started with us bombing the Middle East in the first place. I don't want innocent people to die, but Isis are already doing that, and in fucking horrible ways. I don't want war, but if they really want to get rid of Isis air strikes alone are not enough, it would need to be coordinated on ground levels as well between several countries. But then what? Another thing to take its place. I don't think there is a right move hereConfused

AimUnder · 27/11/2015 00:06

No

Shakshuka · 27/11/2015 00:16

The problem is that, at the moment, the alternative to Isis is mainly Assad. There are many Sunni groups who side with Isis because, for them, it's the less of two evils. They would be far more likely to beak away from Isis and weaken it that way if they knew that they would be protected from Assad.

Isis is awful but Assad is no better - he just doesn't export it (beyond Israel and Lebanon but they don't count)

BritabroadinAsia · 27/11/2015 00:27

No

RonaldMcDonald · 27/11/2015 00:27

No

Booyaka · 27/11/2015 00:31

I was a yes. But then I thought, in 1916 the Irish did the Easter Rising when they knew they were going to fail, because they wanted a 'blood sacrifice' in order to stir the Irish up into all out revolt against the British. And it worked.

I think ISIS might be doing something similar, trying to provoke an all out war between Muslims and everybody else. Trying to make Muslims rise up and take on the rest of the world, which made me pause for thought, because why would we give them what they want?

But then I thought, well it's not going to work. I genuinely doubt they'd be able to get all Muslims in the West over to their side. Most of them probably just want a quiet comfortable life.

And I do worry as well, if we beat them in Syria, what's to stop them popping up elsewhere? They where neutralised somewhat in Afghanistan, then they just popped up in Syria. What if they just flee Syria and pop up in Somalia or Eritrea or Sierra Leone or anywhere else which is poor and has a tendency to instability?

I really don't know. But I do thing we should either do it properly or not at all. If we do it, do it like WW2. We all agree that there is a great evil we need to rid the world of, so we put aside our differences and cooperate with Russia, Assad, etc, etc. then just deal with the rest of the problems when he's gone.

And no half measures, full on boots on the ground war. What I've been reading is that ISIS know that when they do attacks like Moscow, Paris, ISIS know the attacks are coming and run away, and so we are mainly bombing civilians. I would feel more confident that ground troops could differentiate between civilians and Jihadis than bombs.

ReginaBlitz · 27/11/2015 00:31

No.. But then what say do we get? It's a joke.

KeepOnMoving1 · 27/11/2015 00:32

NoSad

Behooven · 27/11/2015 00:37

There's no negotiating with these creatures.
Yes.

Barmaid101 · 27/11/2015 00:41

Yes

MagicalHamSandwich · 27/11/2015 00:41

Abso-fucking-lately no!

It's just going to a) kill a bunch of innocent people thus b) making the IS-types feel vindicated in their belief that 'the infidels' are at war with Muslims and that they hence have every right to defend themselves.

I think we'd better invest the money in hiring some brilliant minds and win the propaganda war. Essentially it ought to be considered both socially unacceptable and - possibly more effective - utterly ridiculous to support IS and jihadism in general - not just among the British mainstream but even among non-violent Islamists.