The Student Room Group

Have the West learned nothing (re Syria)?

From the Afghanistan and Iraq debacles?

The public simply have no appetite for wars whereby the West try to police the rest of the World.

Yes, it appears that the Assad regime is barbaric in it's treatment of it's citizens, but why is this case any different to human rights atrocities in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Zimbabwe etc?

I for one will NEVER support a foreign invasion again.

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Reply 1
It seems Cameron is suffering from a severe bout of amnesia, where the past ten years of invasion, war and public hostility to foreign wars have been completely erased from his memory.
Or maybe they just remember Rwanda and the effect it had on the region ?
Reply 3
Assad is the lesser evil to deal with. If he falls, Iraq will soon become worse than it already is. While the original FSA may have been well intentioned at one point, the revolution has basically been hijacked by a bunch of extremist foreigners who only want to extend their own influence.
Or Afghanistan that has been moved from a medieval existence. Or Iraq where a dictator invaded Kuwait and they waited a whole ten years to get rid of him. Or Libya, where a dictator who has supported state sponsored terrorism, invaded a neighbouring country as well as breaking his nuclear non proliferation treaty was ousted.

Maybe the lessons have been learn from WW2 era whereby Germany and Japan were allowed to get way with it for so long because of hesitancy that when military action id come, it took a lot longer than it needed to be.

Maybe the west has learned he de stablising effects on a country having to adsorb 100,000s of refugees

Maybe so many people don't have aright to complain about foreign wars as it doesn't actually impact on them. Maybe these complaints are just highlighting to selfish nature of people whereby they think that if we don't get involved in these the government will spend more of somebody elses money on them.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by MatureStudent36
Or Afghanistan that has been moved from a medieval existence. Or Iraq where a dictator invaded Kuwait and they waited a whole ten years to get rid of him. Or Libya, where a dictator who has supported state sponsored terrorism, invaded a neighbouring country as well as breaking his nuclear non proliferation treaty was ousted.

Maybe the lessons have been learn from WW2 era whereby Germany and Japan were allowed to get way with it for so long because of hesitancy that when military action id come, it took a lot longer than it needed to be.

Maybe so many people don't have aright to complain about foreign wars as it doesn't actually impact on them. Maybe these complaints are just highlighting to selfish nature of people whereby they think that if we don't get involved in these the government will spend more of somebody elses money on them.


And where did the Afghanistan and Iraq wars get us? The countries today are barely functional democracies. Would you take a holiday in either country?

All those wars brought us were more extremism, more terror, and more division.
Original post by Existentialgrad
And where did the Afghanistan and Iraq wars get us? The countries today are barely functional democracies. Would you take a holiday in either country?

All those wars brought us were more extremism, more terror, and more division.


Well Afghanistan has a functioning democracy as does Iraq. Neither have had them for a long time, but if you're expecting a Western style democracy that's taken us centuries to develop, they're not there yet but they're working towards it.

Well if you want to talk about holidays.

http://www.undiscovered-destinations.com/holidays-guided-tours/iraq/?gclid=CLur46mDoLkCFQbJtAody28AnA
http://www.hinterlandtravel.com/afghan_upcoming.htm


Not my cup of tea, but some people do go there on holiday. Bamyan Province in Afghanistan is developing a ski resort.

http://www.afghanskichallenge.com/


The extremism was always there. It' always been rising. Samuel Huntingtons paper goes along way to describing what we're seeing at the moment.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clash_of_Civilizations
http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/pnorris/Acrobat/Huntington_Clash.pdf
Original post by Existentialgrad
And where did the Afghanistan and Iraq wars get us? The countries today are barely functional democracies. Would you take a holiday in either country?

All those wars brought us were more extremism, more terror, and more division.

but you have to ask yourself why was the were the wars fought. Military industrial complex. Everyone who matters wins no matter the war. Thats why they can always think about more
Reply 8
Nope, and we never will.
Original post by Lemon Andersen
but you have to ask yourself why was the were the wars fought. Military industrial complex. Everyone who matters wins no matter the war. Thats why they can always think about more


So we've spent more in Afghanistan than we've earned and you're claiming that it's down to the military industrial complex doing it for profit.

You are aware the wars are actually economically bad, as in they cost money.
It's starting to look similar to Iraq, but with 'chemical weapons' replacing 'WMD.' I remember back then people were saying 'Afghanistan, Iraq - it'll be Syria next', and I would think 'yeah yeah, paranoia's fun.' But it looks like I was wrong, all wrong.
Original post by MatureStudent36
So we've spent more in Afghanistan than we've earned and you're claiming that it's down to the military industrial complex doing it for profit.

You are aware the wars are actually economically bad, as in they cost money.

The tax payer may have lost, but you think private contractors are not making a killing ?
haha
Reply 12
Original post by navarre
It seems Cameron is suffering from a severe bout of amnesia, where the past ten years of invasion, war and public hostility to foreign wars have been completely erased from his memory.


Either that or he just really loves being stripped down, buckled up with reins and straddled by the riding crop yielding US government.
Reply 13
I hope another war doesnt break out. :hmmm: we have enough problems in the world already.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Reply 14
middle east is just as bad as the west.. obviously in different context
Original post by franzk
middle east is just as bad as the west.. obviously in different context


As in the west doesn't believe in using chemical weapons on civilians?
Original post by MatureStudent36
As in the west doesn't believe in using chemical weapons on civilians?

Agent orange never happened right ?

Or it was a really dark period which saw the US undergo widespread critism. Those involved have now been arrested for war crimes and are punished.

Or maybe it doesnt matter cause it was civilised mass undiscriminate killing ?
Original post by Lemon Andersen
Agent orange never happened right ?

Or it was a really dark period which saw the US undergo widespread critism. Those involved have now been arrested for war crimes and are punished.

Or maybe it doesnt matter cause it was civilised mass undiscriminate killing ?


You do know that Agent Orange was a herbicide? It was never designed to shut down the nervous and respiratory system of human beings. It was designed to kill foliage.

Although it's side affects were unfortunate.
Original post by MatureStudent36
You do know that Agent Orange was a herbicide? It was never designed to shut down the nervous and respiratory system of human beings. It was designed to kill foliage.

Although it's side affects were unfortunate.

Oh ok. So there was nothing insidious about the use of Agent Orange . I mean it just had this really tragic side affect that the US deeply regrets. But those responsible for other war crimes in vietnam were however brought to justice ?

come off it.
Original post by Lemon Andersen
Oh ok. So there was nothing insidious about the use of Agent Orange . I mean it just had this really tragic side affect that the US deeply regrets. But those responsible for other war crimes in vietnam were however brought to justice ?

come off it.


Pretty much. A war crime is the deliberate act of an illegal nature as per laid out by International law. Using a herbicide who's long term affects weren't know doesn't class itself as a war crime.

Using Sarin nerve agent on a civilian population is a deliberate act and does go against international law.


Can you stop trying to derail the thread into US bashing.

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