‘Syria won’t go away if we just shut our eyes,’ says the newly ennobled Daniel Finklestein, in today’s Times (£). What he proposes instead is that we support the Prime Minister, then close our eyes and intervene. It is better to do something than nothing. Who knows what will happen? But at least we will have shown the bad guys that we mean business. (Don’t let’s talk about the other bad guys, for now, those heart-eaters on YouTube who will benefit if the West moves against Assad. That will only complicate matters.)
What nonsense these liberal interventionists spout. Finklestein cites the Korean War as a reason to attack in Syria. ‘The war was hugely unpopular and nearly resulted in disastrous military defeat,’ he says. ‘But the Korean war signalled to the Soviet Union that the United States would act if it pushed things too far.’
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