At last David Cameron confirms no war in Syria for Britain
DESPITE those who favour British participation in Western military action in Syria refusing to accept their crushing defeat, David Cameron yesterday ruled it out unequivocally.
Britain will not take part in an attack on the Assad regime, even if America and other Western powers launch one, the Prime Minister told the Commons.
That is just as well, because he could not give a satisfactory answer to the “Armageddon” question put to him by the longest-serving MP, Sir Peter Tapsell.
What, Sir Peter asked, would happen if Assad responded to an American-led attack on him by inviting in the Russian military to launch attacks intended to “degrade” the rebel forces ranged against him?
The answer, as Sir Peter implied, is that the world’s two most powerful military nations would have been drawn into a war in the Middle East on opposite sides. Britain sitting this one out does not mean that such a terrifying scenario definitely won’t come to pass but does make it somewhat less likely.
The G20 summit is the place for all the leading nations to work out how to find a joint way out of this crisis. Let’s hope cooler heads prevail – as they have in Britain – because it is certainly not worth risking a third world war over.