Cameron’s unthinking policy on Syria has fuelled the rise of British jihadism | Peter Ford (7 avril 2015)
▻http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/apr/07/david-cameron-failure-fuelled-british-jihadism
And what was Cameron thinking – that decimating the Syrian army would make life harder for the Islamists, who are palpably the bigger and more atrocious threat?
If Cameron had had his way, the jihadis could be in control of Damascus by now. Where is the accountability? William Hague took the fall for the embarrassing failure with parliament – after a decent interval he was removed from the Foreign Office – but Cameron is the Teflon man here. Having got away with bombing Libya (with barely a thought for the poor Libyans, whose country is now a tragic mess) he must have arrogantly thought that Syria would make a nice encore.
This is all the more deplorable because Cameron’s unthinking policy on Syria can only have fuelled the rise of support for jihadism among British Muslim youth. To call for the overthrow of the secular Syrian government, to demonise it out of all proportion (and remember, this is the same President Assad who was having tea with the Queen in 2006), to predict its imminent fall, as Cameron and Hague were doing in 2012 and 2013 – and then to wail as though it was nothing to do with them when British Muslims set off to help hasten said overthrow – is inconsistent and nonsensical.
Former ambassador attacks Cameron’s ‘arrogant’ Syria policy
▻http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/07/former-ambassador-attacks-camerons-arrogant-syria-policy
Peter Ford has accused the prime minister of demonising President Bashar al-Assad and, as a result, encouraging young British Muslims to become jihadis.
Ford, who retired from the diplomatic service in 2006, attacked Cameron for supporting the armed Syrian opposition and being prepared to bomb government forces after their use of chemical weapons killed up to 1,400 people in August 2013.