Calm needed to prevent war

Sir, – The indecent haste with which the UK Government has made judgements about recent international events can only serve to ramp up tensions between the western powers and Russia and Syria.

Boris Johnson, in response to the Salisbury incident, rapidly drew conclusions about responsibility and used highly inflammatory language to rush other politicians into following his lead.

This was most inappropriate for the office he holds and has initiated a disturbingly hurried apparent bandwagoning on the part of other world “leaders”. This reminded me of the speech Tony Blair used to entice parliament into support for the invasion of Iraq.

I do not believe any of the international players in this crisis are blameless and I am not an apologist for Russia or Syria. They may well be responsible for disgusting acts against civilians but I do not believe that we have yet seen convincing evidence that they are uniquely culpable.

We are told about “most plausible explanations”, “most probable responsibility” and, dare I say it, “secret intelligence” but where does that really take us?

We are far from blameless. Our interference in Iraq left that country a violent shadow of its former self. Our interference in Libya has left a tribal mess and violence.

We are now reaping the “rewards”. Dictators are horrible but remove them and do things get better? There are many groups who stand to benefit from implicating other players but nobody will benefit from a Third World War.

Our government needs to cool extremely dangerous international tensions.

Andy Waye. Ryst Wood Road, Forest Row. East Sussex.