I hope that this thread will spark a bit of debate. The way I see things, before 1999 when Tony Blair got together with his mate Bill Clinton over Kosovo there was an unwritten rule in UK politics. However bad an overseas leader might be, as long as their murderous actions stayed within their own country, we didn't intervene militarily. Possibly sanctions might be imposed, but not boots on the ground. I can understand many people being upset by incidents and photos, but the blunt fact is that intervention seems to make things worse, not better. These are not my words but Nigel Farage's, and before you accuse me of being on the extreme right, George Galloway has said almost exactly the same thing. It is easy for many people to get upset and demand intervention, but they are thinking with their hearts not their heads. In not allowing Ghaddafi and Assad to crush internal rebellion we have created economic chaos, Islamic extremism, a tidal wave of refugees and the destruction of priceless monuments. In Kosovo the least bad solution would have been to divide the place between Serbia and Albania. Instead of this, an artificial state has been created with Serbs as victims instead of Albanians. Terrible, hideous things have been done with the best of motives. We have been invading other countries and telling them how to run their affairs; colonialism with all of the disadvantages and none of the advantages. The people telling us to adopt this foreign policy are from the so-called centre of politics. The fact that Jeremy Corbyn completely rejects this approach is behind his enduring popularity.
Quote Reply
