Announcing the commencement of military action against the Gadaffi regime’s refusal to capitulate to the wishes of the UN our PM, David Cameron, said:
“We should not stand aside while this dictator murders his own people”
It seemed to be a rather strange and weak reasoning for entering into what could well escalate as a long and full blown military occupation, given that successive UK governments have been happy to ignore similar unsavoury behaviour from Robert Mugabe or China or Syria (the list goes on and on) for decades.
Of course, creating an air exclusion zone is a good thing if Gaddafi is using air strikes – but he is not. His followers are still free to launch ground attacks on their opposition or to knock on the doors of rebels and ‘disappear’ them like so many brutal regimes do.
To stop such actions, we would need troops on the ground, and haven’t we been there before?
It seems politicians are slow to learn from historical fact (perhaps we should blame our education system)
The PM finished his address by saying:
“I believe we should all be confident that what we are doing is in a just cause and in our nation’s interest.”
I guess we’ll have to wait to hear to whom the cause will be ‘just’ and exactly how it will be of direct interest to our country.
Personally, I shall not be holding my breath!
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