Our brave PM was right on Syria strike
AS AN old soldier who fought in Aden, I know if you put off a military operation, you place your soldiers at risk. By ordering missile strikes on Syria, our brave Prime Minister shouldered the responsibility, like Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands War and Winston Churchill during World War II. Jeremy Corbyn was seeking to make political capital with his call for a time-wasting vote in the Commons. MPs of all parties should have given Theresa May a standing ovation. Russia’s Vladimir Putin seems to have no regrets that his veto at the united Nations allows Syria’s President Assad to escape censure. Will he one day end up in The Hague over the innocent women and children who died in a most horrible way due to poison gas? PHILIP PEARCE-SMITH, Southampton.
I FLED Syria with my child and am a member of the Syrian opposition. President Assad, who has rejected all attempts to reach a democratic solution, and his regime are responsible for what is happening in Syria. When a peaceful solution fails and the regime and its allies reject negotiations and instead use chemical weapons against ordinary people, military action is perhaps the only option.
BAHIA MARDINI, London NW10.
To TAKE military action without parliamentary approval is based on a half-truth about constitutional practice. Past governments may not have had an explicit vote in Parliament, but what they certainly did was judge the mood of the House before both World Wars and the Falklands War. What has gone on in the heads of the supposedly knowledgeable people who have advocated this unapproved action in Syria? Do they not know that a government must be able to win a vote of confidence in the House of Commons at any time?
ROGER SCHAFIR, London N21.
A WELL-INFORMED, representative and independent body should make the final decision on military action. only an MP would believe this is a description of Parliament. MPs can’t be allowed access to all of the relevant intelligence and are incapable of making a sensible decision if they have the opportunity to score a political point. We need to keep MPs away from the truly important decisions.
ROB JOYNSON, Grimsby, Lincs.
So FUNNY listening to Jeremy Corbyn ‘mansplaining’ the political, legal and international military aspects of the strike on Syrian chemical weapons facilities to Mrs May. Her restraint in effecting a limited military action and also not giving him a well-deserved riposte is exemplary.
DON TROWER, Braintree, Essex. THERE is only one thing more frightening than a politician waving a piece of paper and saying: ‘Peace in our time.’ And that’s a politician saying: ‘Mission accomplished.’
STUART BOWER, Hove, E. Sussex. WHY the distinction between chemical and conventional weapons? Is there any difference in the suffering of the victims?
GEOFF NEAUM, Heydon, Cambs.