And the missiles have been launched ..

[Coldwaragain]

Oh crap.

Cobblers - if anything important required a full vote in parliament every time nothing would ever get done and certainly not quickly.

I would agree had we declared war: we haven’t

Assad is fighting ISIS.

I thought Isis had been defeated in Syria? Haven’t they been pretty much decimated?

It seems to me Assad is just using chemical weapons against his own people, many of them children.

And yes we are all perfectly aware of budgets allocated to each department.

We simply question the priorities of £1.5bn bunged to the DUP and prioritising the cost of bombs over our NHS.

Cobblers - ref Theresa may - a little unfair don’t you think? I was upset watching the recent video of children involved in the attack and I imagine she would have been too

Cobblers

More whataboutery...

Without Parliamentary scrutiny?

Of course not, but there is no precedent or legal requirement for a vote on military action, and remember Iraq went through scrutiny and was voted for.

This was targeted attack and the facilities, Russia and Assad would have already moved their military away from these locations etc, this isn't about "killing bad guys" this is about destroying the chemical weapon infrastructure, Assad and Russia have already shown diplomacy is a no go for the past 7 years.

JustAnother - wholly agree - hopefully these strikes knocked out Syrian chemical weapons stocks and facilities

Assuming the strikes were successful this is a good example of taking a real bastards more nasty toys away

Why are we getting links to RT?????

Seriously

Exactly Heyduggeesflipflop If Corbyn was PM he would be on the steps of No10 shaking hands with Putin, before inviting him in to 'discuss' the situation.

Thank the Lord Corbyn and his showery shit of a Shadow Cabinet aren't running the country.

I thought Mays speech made some sense and I loathe the Tories normally.
Cannot really just allow them to carry on can we?
If we did then who knows what will happen next.

Cobblers Arguably every govt dept, like Education, the Home Office, DEFRA, can be said to be taking money away from the bottomless pit of the NHS. Taxation pays for lots of things, defence among them. I'd prefer a greater defence budget.

To say we elected May, therefore she can just make decisions like this isn't strictly true. It is a minority government with DUP backing. So no, I don't think May has the right to do this without putting it to a parliamentary vote.

I can't believe someone has linked to RT with apparent sincerity. WTF.

OK but what, precisely, are people here freaking out about?

1. that innocent people are being gassed?

Or

2. that WW3 is about to break out?

If 1, then yes it's horrible and upsetting.

If 2, then it isn't going to happen. No one wants a war, even Putin.

Agree with the strike; not laying down a marker tacitly condones and normalises the use of chemical weapons. In Naval parlance this was a warning shot across the bows.

People need to ask themselves, why was this the chemical attack that provoked retaliation, why not the countless others? Is it only the ones that make major headlines that deserve retaliation?

What is our strategy, where are we going with this?

As for the Syrian people, do others really think 'oh good, now it will all end?'. What they see is yet more countries piling in their bombs on top of their small country, fighting proxy wars while they suffer.

@Fustyoldcarcass

Your clutching at your anti tory straws there.

What is our strategy, where are we going with this?

There is no alternative strategy other than a shot across the bows to Russia and Assad to say we see you doing shady shit.

If you took off your anti western hat a little, you may see why the latest chemical attack required this reaction.

Cobblersandhogwash Sat 14-Apr-18 08:35:25
And if we so terribly terribly concerned about the welfare of other people in other countries, why do we sell arms to the Saudis who slaughtering Yemeni children?

It's this selective morality that pisses me off.

Agree with this

The thing that worries me is that if Assad is gone then somebody even worse will take over.

Mother of dragons

If the strike was successful then we have taken some of Assad’s worst toys away

That is a good thing. For a start it means he can’t use such weapons on his neighbours in the Middle East

I agree with the strike

The use of chemical weapons against the most vulnerable are we meant to turn a blind eye

Russia sent a very clear message that they are prepared to supply and use them in countries they are not at war with we can’t turn a blind eye