Labour MPs should vote NO to Syria action

UNISONActive is urging Labour MPs to vote against any military intervention in the Syrian conflict. Whilst we roundly condemn the abhorrent use of chemical weapons the only outcome of Western military intervention will be the almost certain inflammation of attacks on Syrian citizens and the spread of the civil war into a regional, if not nuclear, conflict:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/27/attack-syria-chemical-weapon-escalate-backlash

There has to be a UN based solution not a Western imposition of the laughably named ‘surgical’ military intervention which risks more civilian lives being lost. The lessons of Iraq and Afghanistan have once again surfaced. Not so much a row about weapons of mass destruction but useful to Cameron and Obama as a weapon of mass distraction from failing economies and failing foreign policies:

Russia and China should be powerful allies in the road to resolution, and all main UN powers are not without blame in this latest conflict, but evidence led negotiations, to bring about an internationally agreed peaceful resolution, must be sought. Military intervention now will create a schism so deep and so wide it will make the cold war look like a balmy summers day.

If Labour can ever redeem itself from the folly of the Iraq invasion this is their hour. They need to stand up for the people of Syria by saying no to Cameron’s bombing of the Syrian people. Labour needs to demand a UN led peaceful solution which Russia and China can ascribe to because without these states peace within Syria will be elusive.

Anna Rose