There is a war in Syria already. Islamic State’s headquarters in Raqqa are already being bombed on a regular basis. These facts are all too frequently forgotten in our debate about whether to extend airstrikes against Islamic State to Syria. But that we would not be the first country to strike Raqqa is not a reason to sit on the side-lines.
To my mind, there are two particularly strong reasons for the UK joining the coalition attacking IS in Syria. The first is our obligations as an ally. Post the Paris attacks, the French President has made a direct plea for our help. Imagine how we would feel if Islamic State had attacked London and killed more than a hundred of us and the intelligence services declared that these attacks had been planned in Raqqa, but the French refused to join in precision strikes? We would, rightly, feel let down and that all the fine words about solidarity were just that.
The next reason we should play our role is because the existence of this so-called ‘caliphate’ is acting as a recruiting sergeant for Islamist extremism.
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