War

[Gromit]

// Britain is planning to join forces with America and launch military action against Syria within days in response to the gas attack believed to have been carried out by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces against his own people.

Royal Navy vessels are being readied to take part in a possible series of cruise missile strikes, alongside the United States, as military commanders finalise a list of potential targets.

Government sources said talks between the Prime Minister and international leaders, including Barack Obama, would continue, but that any military action that was agreed could begin within the next week.

As the preparations gathered pace, William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, warned that the world could not stand by and allow the Assad regime to use chemical weapons against the Syrian people “with impunity”.
Britain, the US and their allies must show Mr Assad that to perpetrate such an atrocity “is to cross a line and that the world will respond when that line is crossed”, he said.

British forces now look likely to be drawn into an intervention in the Syrian crisis after months of deliberation and international disagreement over how to respond to the bloody two-year civil war. //

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10265765/Navy-ready-to-launch-first-strike-on-Syria.html

Yes or No?

[ummmm]

It's really hard to say no.

[Svejk]

No.
Seems odd to me that he'd start gassing people just at the worst time for him.
We're playing a strange game, supporting jihadists.

[mikey4444]

Good...not before time. We have stood around for too long, watching Assad commit atrocity after atrocity.

[grumpy01]

Is mr. Slippery going to revoke all the redundancy notices for soldiers, I doubt it.Just another stunt by him and the impotent one across the atlantic.

[naomi24]

Oh heavens! And is this going to stop it?

[ChillDoubt]

Yes, but in an aerial combat role only.

I wouldn't want to be holidaying in Cyprus at the moment, I imagine it'll be getting very busy in the next few days.

[naomi24]

Svejk has made an astute observation. If our intervention changes anything, I doubt that in the long term it will be for the better.

[Peter Pedant]

Times change

Saddam gassed and massacred his people and we did nothing

[mikey4444]

PP...that's not true...a no-fly zone was set up and stopped any further gassing in Halabja. We could have done this in Syria months ago, but we just sat back and watched all these atrocities happen. There are people that wish the West had left Saddam alone ...I am not one of them.

[anotheoldgit]

Has all this been officially announced, without parliament being recalled?

Who are these Government sources who are leaking all this information?

[jim360]

Is it really possible for the situation to be made any worse if we intervene? I find that hard to believe -- if there has been chemical weapons use in particular, intervention is necessary, surely, as that breaches international laws?

[mushroom25]

AOG, declaration of war is still only by royal prerogative. Thus it could be decided by "the executive" advising the monarch, and parliament would not be involved.

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

/// Good...not before time. We have stood around for too long, watching Assad commit atrocity after atrocity. ///

You have personally witnessed these atrocities yourself have you Mikey, or are you accepting all you are told as the gospel truth?

Then you criticise others for believing all they read in the Daily Mail.

[mikey4444]

AOG...drivel. Of course I haven't witnessed anything personally...what a daft thing to post ! There is no doubt that these atrocities have happened. Assad has been a bloody butcher for a long time, just as his father was before him. The UN team are going in to investigate as I type. There rebels are by no means unblemished in Syria but they don't have the artillery or the aircraft to do this sort of thing.

[jim360]

If we can intervene without taking sides - that's a big if, though -- but if we can, then why should it matter too much who is doing what to whom? The fact that there are atrocities going on at all is enough cause to jump into the middle and hold both sides apart. Maybe once a, uneasy peace ceasefire is enforced, diplomacy might actually have a better chance to work.

[Ann]

//I wouldn't want to be holidaying in Cyprus at the moment, I imagine it'll be getting very busy in the next few days. //

How would that affect holidays in Turkey in the next couple of weeks if it went ahead?

[ChillDoubt]

How would that affect holidays in Turkey in the next couple of weeks if it went ahead?
----------------------------
Probably not as much, given Turkey's size. There is already a large US/NATO airfield at Incirlik. Given that Turkey has had problems with Syria since this conflict began the US may be loathe to launch strikes from that base and use it more for staging/re-fuelling etc.
RAF Akrotiri (located nearer to tourist resorts than Incirlik is in Turkey) on Cyprus would obviously be used by HM Forces and by its strike aircraft in particular.
US strikes would in all probability be launched form it's carrier group in the Gulf.

[ChillDoubt]

Just breaking on Sky that as the UN inspectors are presently en route to the location of the recent chemical attack and whilst doing so there are reports of a mortar strike in the area.

[anotheoldgit]

mushroom25

/// "We will not take any major actions without first coming to this House, but we cannot simply ignore this continuing slaughter." ///

/// Cameron was reporting back to the Commons from the G8 summit in Loch Erne on Syria ///

[anotheoldgit]

mikey4444

/// AOG...drivel. Of course I haven't witnessed anything personally...what a daft thing to post ///

Not a daft thing to post at all, just asking since you seem to be talking with authority.

I am not saying some things have not happened but then I equally cannot say that they have, or been able to lay the blame in any particular direction.

Look up the word propaganda?