Saturday 31 August 2013

The Syrian crisis

The current political firestorm in both the UK and the US is about the ongoing crises in Syria. 

According numerous reports President Assad has used chemical weapons on his people. Now some people demanding that Europe and the US should now use it's military firepower to oust President Assad.

In the UK Prime Minister David Cameron is seriously under fire. He was forced to recall parliament so MP's could vote on whether military action against Syria was appropriate. 

The result of the vote was an unmitigated disaster for David Cameron and he lost this important vote by about 13 votes. 

David Cameron is in a situation that no UK Prime Minister has been in for over 300 years. He could not even convince his backbenchers that military action was needed.

It has not been a good summer recess for David Cameron with photos of him on holiday in Portugal and then another holiday in the UK he comes across as out of touch with how the average British person is feeling.

The next few weeks will be pivotal for David Cameron either he reasserts his authority or he will become a lame duck Prime Minister.

President Obama has a different challenge to David Cameron as he liked and respected within the Democratic Party. 

However the American people are tired of war and the Iraq and Afghanistan
conflict has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives. 

So President Obama needs to put forward an airtight case that will ensure that he gets the American people behind him. So that the American people do not start to view him as George W Bush mark two.

My own view is that the case for military intervention has not been made. I also believe that the UN  should be taking the lead and that would ensure that if military intervention was needed it would have global support.