And the missiles have been launched ..

[Coldwaragain]

Oh crap.

we should punish innocent Syrians by sending missiles to their towns?
But we didn’t?

@noblegiraffe
Where were they sent then? Have you seen the videos of them being shot down over Damascus?

From the news reports, a military base near Damascus was the target. Chemical weapons factories, not people’s houses.

We already have proof of chemical attacks in Syria, what more proof would EVER be enough for you Motheroffourdragons. Would you literally have to be in an attack as it happened to believe it?

The UN can NEVER agree action without Russia's permission and Russia will probably never give permission.

As for a vote in the UK parliament: Using chemical weapons should be met with an immediate decisive response. I am not sure the message is as useful if your response is a debate amongst elected colleagues.
Also Corbyn is not interested in a debate, he is against any action, ever no matter what, so any debate might be pointless.

It was not just the 3 amigos, most if not all of the EU and NATO have supported the action. It just so happens the US, UK and France are the only countries that have the ability to carry them out.

Mother

‘I would have waited until we had unbiased unequivocal proof’

And while you were trying to find such unassailable proof Russia and Syria would be two steps ahead of you ‘clearing’ such evidence away

‘More collaboration between members of the un’

This has already not worked for several years as discussed - there is impasse due to un veto

‘I would have gone to parliament on monday’

Aside from the wisdom of not warning your enemy in advance and publicly in such a way as to your intentions, you know as well as I do that corbyn/ Abbott et al would deliberately block and delay for party political advantage

All in all what you are suggesting would cause more of the same. Debate and prevarication while Rome burns

I've been thinking carefully about it, talking to a couple of people from Syria and I've come to the conclusion that despite the political motives behind Trump and Mays actions, careful targeting of chemical weapon munitions was the right thing to do.
Sometimes even bad people do the right thing.

Yes that's true Dragons. It is worrying.

careful targeting of chemical weapon munitions was the right thing to do.

I’m glad you said that kitten because I do respect your opinion on this and was worried we disagreed from your earlier post.

Obviously there are worries about how Russia will react but let’s face it, Russia are going to do what Russia wants to do regardless, and they enjoy making us dance to their tune.

For all those saying 'We're not the policemen of the world', I think the question is - well who is then? Do we want policemen of the world? Only if we don't, we effectively don't have international law governing military matters either. Is that what we want? The UN can only work as a negotiating body, and what happens when one side refuses to negotiate as here?
I agree with OYBBK - this is a mess, it's horrible, but on balance, something had to be done.

People make lots of money through war

Dancingleopard

I completely agree but I’m not sure what your point is.

The cost of the relatively modest barrage last night will only represent a tiny proportion of the defence budgets of countries like the USA, uk and France

Heyduggeesflipflop

You seem very naive to be honest. Please don't believe everything you read in the Daily Fail. However, please correct me if I have got this wrong, I believe that there is not one shred of evidence available to prove that Assad has used chemical weapons on his own people. If I am indeed talking rubbish, then could you please provide links which prove otherwise. As for your continual boasts about having served in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, then may I respectfully suggest that there is a huge difference between actually being in these HUGE countries than actually serving on the front line, which as a female, i'm guessing you didn't. Please educate yourself on such matters.

Please don't believe everything you read in the Daily Fail.

I’ve seen this line trotted out a lot lately on threads that seem to be related to Russia. It’s a bit odd.

I mean, they could have read it about the 2018 attack in the Telegraph
www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/04/14/evidence-shows-syria-attacked-people-chemical-weapons-say-us/

Or the BBC www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-43740626

Or the Guardian www.theguardian.com/world/live/2018/apr/12/uk-russia-tensions-rise-over-syria-attack-and-salisbury-poisoning-live-updates?

Or many other news sources. But hey, way to try to distract people.

noblegiraffe

The BBC and The Guardian, are you being serious?

Okaaaay, lets cut the crap please. What evidence is there to suggest that a chemical attack took place in Syria. Peter Ford, the former UK Ambassador for Syria, doesn't believe it. As I said, please don't believe everything you read in the papers.

The Peter Ford that has defended Assad and has close connections to the family

Yes he is someone worth listening to

Russia do this a lot. “Where’s your evidence” makes your opponents do a lot of work to try to prove the bloody obvious beyond doubt. They don’t actually care about evidence, they just want to be as awkward as possible.

What evidence is there to suggest that a chemical attack took place in Syria

I think you should not believe everything you read in the canary...

www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-france-intellige/french-declassified-intelligence-report-on-syria-gas-attacks-idUSKBN1HL0N1

As for your continual boasts about having served in places such as Iraq and Afghanistan, then may I respectfully suggest that there is a huge difference between actually being in these HUGE countries than actually serving on the front line, which as a female, i'm guessing you didn't. Please educate yourself on such matters.

Fuck right off with that user1492 blah blah. Anyone who's done military service gets respect from me (bar obviously those who've committed atrocities) and they will have seen horrific things, front line or not. I await the details of your glorious career...

Does having served in the military really give someone an understanding of all the issues though? We're all entitled to an opinion but I'm not sure that having served in Afghanistan is itself enough to understand the political situation. I suspect we're all equally in the dark about the real forces at play.

This doesn't mean that those who have served in the military shouldn't be respected for their service, Im absolutely not saying or implying that.

Butterymuffin

Really? You respect anyone who's done military service. How very sad. Maybe work on your self esteem perhaps. As for my own glorious career... unlike a few on hear, I am far too modest to boast about it.

Also, as of september the UN has evidence they have used chemical weapons 28 since september.

uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-warcrimes/syrian-government-forces-used-chemical-weapons-more-than-two-dozen-times-u-n-idUKKCN1BH19Z

This strike wasn't because of a "one of alleged incident" its because nothing could be done via UN means, Syrian and Russian forces would have been well aware and if there was any collateral damage Russia and Syria would have been shouting from the rooftops by now, I would suggest that instead of telling other people to stop reading the daily mail which itself is a tired trope, maybe you should take the odd glance at it so you're even slightly better informed of what is going on there.

May doesn’t have my confidence, nor Trump, but this situation is bigger than party politics and should be examined on its own details, not with fatuous references to Iraq or whinges about Corbyn or May

Damn right.

Justanotherlurker

Your naivety is sweet, it really is.

User ah, anonymous username, anonymous career. Right. Bet it's GREAT. Maybe work on your homophone use?

finding absolutely. Not saying they know everything, at all. It's a complex and difficult situation. Just that belittling the value of their service isn't a good look.