Politico this morning highlights one consequence of the incredibly rapid change in power in Syria. As they note in a newsletter:
Can we chat with proscribed terrorists? One of the big questions for Starmer will be whether his government will engage with HTS and al-Golani in the coming weeks and months. This is because HTS was proscribed as a terrorist organization in the U.K. in May 2017, with the Home Office declaring it should be treated as an “alternative name” for al Qaeda. The PM said on Sunday night that it was “very early days” when asked if the U.K. would engage with HTS.
The issue is real. It obviously has consequences in Gaza, the example.
What the question highlights is the obvious folly of prescribing organisations as terrorists. We really should know this by know.
Mandela moved from terrorist to revered states-person.
Closer to home, Martin McGuinness moved from terrorist to deputy first minister of Northern Ireland, and shaker of the Queen's hand.
Like it or not, HTS will now have to be accommodated in some way.
The inference is obvious.
The question is when will we stop putting impediments to progress created by political posturing on our part in the path to workable (even if not optimal) political solutions that in turn pave the way to better outcomes?
It is very unlikely that Syria has an optimal solution today. But, talking will help create one. It's time we recognised that without talks nothing is resolved, and posturing rarely helps that.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Labelling of groups is not designed to be informative, but to show how these groups are to be treated.
We see this today when calling people “antisemitic”, and it is applied, for examples, to some Jewish people.
The irony here is that since 2000, Britain has had a terrible record in protecting our real national security. Since Putin destroyed Grozny in Chechnya (2000), then underscored his methods by assassinating Alexander Litvinenko, drinking tea laced with polonium in a Mayfair hotel in 2006, Britain’s response has acted as if its principal purpose has been to encourage Russia’s political ambitions for expansion, and a return to a past, part Imperial, part Soviet in its ruthless methods. Britain did virtually nothing about the 2006 Litvinenko assassination; but rather allowed Russian oligarchs and their money to pour into London, effectively without let or hindrance; and establish themselves in the establishment. It did nothing about the Russian invasion of the Donbas in 2014. And then, as the Jewel in the Crown in the design a policy best fitted to stoke Russia’s political ambitions in Europe, Britain turned on the EU, and deserted Europe with Brexit. I doubt if even Putin could believe his luck, or that Britain could be quite so stupid. And what have the Labour and Conservative Parties learned from that abject joint folly?
Nothing. Blame everybody else.
I think it was Tony Benn who said that every terrorist he’d ever met had ended up as President of his country.
🙂
We often only engage with these things – in a military response- long after we could have addressed them to avoid creating an enemy. We were perfectly happy for forty years with Northern Ireland as a rigged police state, where even the BBC didnt employ one catholic in a significant role, we did nothing after the cold war to help Russian’s transition towards a proper functioning state – indeed as JW notes we participated in looting that state as its population starved.
Commentators like Anne Applebaum – just love that we have eternal enemies like Russia and China – and show no interest in whether there was or indeed is any way in which they may be turned into – if not friends – at least not eternal enemies.
Richard Sakwa’s ‘the Lost Peace’ suggests what we should have done after the cold war to hlep bring Russai into the fold. But did our military industrial complex really want that? After all ‘war is peace.
I hope Richard’s ‘talking’ is still going on with Russia through back channels – it iss so easy to press the button following a misunderstanding of what the other side is doing.
At least the air is now filled with discussions about how the Ukraine conflict can be ended – wasnt allowed during the first 18 months.
Back channels are invaluable….
Thank you, Andrew.
Neo con and liberal Anne Applebaum is married to fellow traveller Radek Sikorski, friend and fellow Buller of Johnson.
When Sikorski became a minister in Poland, he and his wife had to declarer their incomes and sources of income. Most came from the US war machine and its proxies. That paid for their two sons to go to Eton and Oxford and their homes, town and country, in Poland, England and the US.
The establishment’s decimation of Jeremy Corbyn was, in part, prompted by his recognition of the ‘need’ to talk with ’terrorists’. Whilst he was not leader material his instincts were sound.
Corbyn has always been strong on foreign policy. It’s a pity that his weaknesses mean he is rarely taken seriously.
Pat McFadden MP has said that what we need in Britain is a “start-up mindset” for innovation. I have the answer he is looking for: independence for Scotland. There is the “start-up” mindset he is looking for, and we have lots of the tools already, even down to our own legal system, and even a Parliament; because we were independent, still have a great deal of the required infrastructure (before we decided to create a Union with England and set out to own the world). After all, the reason McFadden needs a start-up mindset is because Britain has reached the point that it no longer adequately functions as a government and Parliament. Devolution was the first phase of change, so Scotland with devolution has already been making the painful changes, and far further down the mind-set revolution. Britain has a long way to go, too long for Scotland to hang around waiting for that painful process; and Britain has displayed no talent for change or renewal. None at all.
Don’t waste tet more of our time in Scotland on your trifling in the fringes of progress, Mr McFadden.
I am amused
His claim was off the Richter scale of absurdity
Thank you, both.
One wonders if MacSweeney, born and raised in Cork, McFadden, born in Glasgow to parents from Donegal, and Sue Gray, born and raised in Belfast, are Irish sleeper agents organising the break up and demise of the union / Ingerland.
I doubt that one….
But the may be agents for Ballsbridge
Asleep perhaps; but sleepers? No. Sleepers are deftly placed but silent, shadowy, skilful people nobody (not even political anoraks) have ever heard of; or ever hear of, even if they topple States. Our State is slowly falling over, without requiring any intervention at all; all it needed was a series of slapstick elections. it is all much more like a Buster Keaton stunt, in very slow motion..