Syrian war

Bombing is immoral, stupid and never wins wars. Syria is the latest victim

The British government will shortly ask parliament to approve its sixth war of overseas intervention in just two decades. The victim will be Syria. Such a war is incoherent. The “enemy” appears to be both sides in a civil war – Islamic State and the Syrian regime. Worse, the war will be limited to the cruellest, most destructive and strategically most useless of weapons, the airborne bomb. Since its invention a century ago the bomb has maintained a mesmeric hold on politicians and soldiers alike. It is now the all-purpose totemic answer to “something must be done”. In Syria it impossible to understand what Britain will be bombing and to what strategic goal.