Thank you, Neil Horner, for your bold and excellent analysis of the brewing debacle in the Middle East (“Support our Troops: keep them home”, The NEWS, August 29).
It is gratifying to note that most of the U.S. allies are backing off their initial attack rhetoric.
This has culminated in the recent stunning defeat of the British Conservative coalition government’s motion to join a United States led action against Syria.
Quite obviously the first thought that is coming to the minds of most sensible people and responsible governments is “Here we go again…”
Intelligent politicians and thoughtful people are realizing that there is no clear proof as to who unleashed the gas — the Syrian government? The Syrian rebels? Al Qaeda? And how convenient it was, certainly in the case of the latter two groups, for the gas attack to coincide with the UN Observer visit.
Are we seriously to believe that the Syrian government would initiate a gas attack on its own people in tandem with a visit from a UN task force?
Tragic as the situation in Syria is, when will the United States learn to “butt out” and realize that the vast majority of circumstances that they have endeavored to resolve by force and by invasion over the years have ended in yet further misery, not only for the largely innocent peoples of the countries involved, but also for the families of the fallen military at home.
It appears that the United States considers its young women and men as simply expendable. Preserve us from a Canadian government that might feel the same way.
As Horner wrote: “Canada should have absolutely nothing to do with it. Support our troops. Keep them home.”
David Hitchcock
Qualicum Beach
