'British government doesn't want left out of Syrian bombing campaign'

The UK wants to get involved in the bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria, especially as France is now involved in the hostilities, says Lindsey German from the British Stop the War coalition.

RT: The British prime minister said he was soon going to present to parliament a plan extending air strikes to Syria. What do you think prompted his move?

Lindsey German: I think that David Cameron, whose been trying to get this kind of vote for some time, he’s been halted in this before because he wasn’t confident particularly with the Labour Party and the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. He wasn’t confident he could get any kind of cross-party consensus, which is normally what happens when there is a move towards war in the British parliament, when there is a vote for it. There is usually a high level of agreement. And also I think the situation was complicated from the British point of view when the Russian bombing started last month. So, with all these things he definitely feels after the events in Paris and after the revulsion that people quite rightly feel that there will be more appetite to do something.

RT: The decision comes amid a security alert in the EU. Do you think this time round action in Syria will find more support?

LG: This is one of the great contradictions in this that when the British government lost the vote just over two years ago, that was an attempt to bomb Assad and the Assad regime. Now, we are talking about bombing ISIS\ISIL who are the opponents of Assad. So, of course, had the vote succeeded in 2013 we would be bombing Assad rather than ISIS, who might be in much stronger position than they are today. There is no real logic to this because it seems to me a big part of this is that the British government doesn’t want to be left out when particularly France is involved in the bombing with the US. I think it is partly about saying Britain has to have a role in this which, of course, is very dangerous because we’ve seen Britain involvement in Libya, in Iraq and Afghanistan, in all these different places.

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