Syria and the end of the of the age of ‘Doing Something’
Ever since Cameron lost the Syria vote yesterday evening, much has been made about the shadow of Iraq, and rightly so. Those who will decry this vote as the end of interventionism are wrong. It was one of its chief proponents, Tony Blair, who put that doctrine into a grave in Baghdad.
What died last night was intervention’s weaker cousin: ‘Doing Something.’ Cameron failed because he thought if he focused on the horror of what had happened in Damascus, he wouldn’t be questioned on what exactly we could do about it. The need to respond to the atrocity would be so strong, the response itself would be almost peripheral. Instead, parliament quite sensibly asked what our objectives were, and what the after effects of dropping yet more bombs in the Middle East would be.
That is the true legacy of Iraq, that these question can be asked without fear. When doubts were raised about the weapons programs of how the invasion would go, they were silenced by accusations that any opposition was objectively pro-Saddam. Some of the cabinet tried to play the same disgusting game last night and it blew up in their faces. Cameron’s own party was unconvinced, let alone the country at large.
The fact is that our options for making a real difference in Syria are extremely limited. Establishing a no-fly zone would require a large campaign against modern air defenses, some of which might be manned by Russian personnel. A ground invasion is out of the question, as is close support of insurgents, many of whom are the very Jihadists that we’re supposed to fighting that other war against.
What was effectively on the table last night was a few cruise missile strikes of the kind Clinton launched against Hussein in the 90s. They would accomplish no military objective and not seriously weaken Assad, but they would show we had done something. It would be the geopolitical equivalent of a spanking, at a million or so per Tomahawk slap.
Parliament decided last night that launching missiles was a poor way to make the images on our television easier to stomach. Let’s hope we find a better solution.
