Syria

When Alex Salmond, the lone voice of sanity, condemned the proposed bombing of Bosnia towards the end of the Yugoslav civil war, as "an act of unparalleled folly", he was almost right. In the days before D-Day, the Allies carried out bombing raids all over the northern  coast of France, the intention being to 'soften up' the enemy, but in reality killing lots of the French people who were up for liberation. The damage was still easily visible when I visited and looked in the 'fifties. The USA repeatedly followed a similar routine in Vietnam later on, bombing villages each time they were taken over by the Vietcong.



Sahara Complex, near Damascus

Some of us are capable of learning from history, if our politicians cannot. Do we want to follow the same incoherent behaviour again, with the long-suffering people of Syria as victims this time? The answer must be no.