It’s not every day I spring to the defence of Ed Miliband, Secretary for Environment, Net Zero and all the rest of it. But for him to be taken to task for not backing the bombing of Syria back in 2013, as Wes Streeting cautiously does today, is actually to criticise him for his most statesmanlike act during his entire period as Leader of the Opposition.
Miliband was given a rough ride by Nick Robinson on the BBC Today programme about it: would he be able to look the relatives of the unfortunate people murdered in the dictator’s prison in the eye and say that he does not regret not bombing Assad’s forces? To which he stoutly, and honourably, replied that he doesn’t. And good for him.
No one in 2013 was under the smallest illusion about the nature of the Assad government
It would, he said, have been irresponsible to have put British troops ‘in harm’s way’ in that conflict, particularly when there was no obvious exit strategy.
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