Weird Granny Slater wrote:Obviously Western public opinion in 2013 (overwhelmingly against military intervention) was deeply unsatisfactory to the hawks and their ambitions in the Middle East. Solution: leave it a few years, all the while keeping the civil war ticking over nicely (and the arms manufacturers happy) by arming and supporting Syrian opposition forces. Use the time to refine the consent-manufacturing process to maximise the likelihood of getting the populations on-side (in the UK the EU referendum didn't go as planned, but a little event in Salisbury might help)... and Don's your uncle.
This has nothing to do with anyone's ambitions in the Middle East. Chemical weapons were used against civilians, children included. We were supposed to have learned our lessons with regards to allowing such atrocities to go unchecked. Sadly some people then, as now, are more interested in playing political games, whilst burying there head in the sand when it comes to the seriousness of these actions. These problems don't go away if you ignore them. In this case, they simply become much more difficult to solve, an outcome that was entirely foreseeable even at the time. So whilst it might be convenient for some to insist that this is simply the result of some kind of warmongering by Western politicians, we shouldn't forget the facts: chemical weapons were used against civilians, the UK Parliament refused to condemn it, and too many people simply chose to turn their backs. Sometimes difficult decisions have to be made. Some people simply refuse to acknowledge this.