I’m working on a long piece about British interests, and involvement, in Syria, but I think this clip from Yes, Prime Minister best sums up the best approach to the crisis…
Britain’s Syria policy
Posted on November 14, 2012
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Ed
November 15, 2012
This indeed would be a better response to the Syrian situation than the government’s policy of fanning the insurgency. Make no mistake that we are unwisely encouraging a terrorist uprising with intelligence, co-ordination etc while destabilising the Syrian government, leading to the grave risk that it may all blow up in our faces Afghan mujahideen-style.
When Syria is either taken over by Islamic fundamentalists or becomes such a sectarian bloodbath and al-Qaida breeding ground that we are forced to intervene fully, will anyone remember to ask Cameron whether Assad was so bad for us that it was wise to encourage this uprising?
Ed
November 15, 2012
I still like the idea of using the Syria crisis to our advantage by using it as an opportunity to reshape that part of the Middle East, with parallels with Egypt during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.
Then Israel had trapped the Egyptian Third Army to the East of the Suez Canal and was threatening to destroy it. The US used the opportunity to prize Egypt away from the Soviet Union in exchange for getting the Israelis not to destroy the trapped Egyptian army.
Perhaps Syria could be prized away from Iran if we saved Assad from a Gaddafi-like fate. Already Hamas appears to have broken with Damascus.