I don't see how bombing Syria is going to help when most of the people who are going to attack us already live in our countries - it's always been the same. the bombers who attacked London in 2005 were all from Leeds and Aylesbury
I don't think that bombing will help us mainly.
I think it's hugely disingenuous of politicians to pretend it helps us.
it's hugely disingenuous to say that there won't be "collateral damage" - by which we mean innocent people getting killed.
and it's plain naive to think that images of people killing civilians won't divide a nations opinions, and serve as a rallying call for anyone that was on the fence to go and help them, or to bring the war to 'us'...
however,
to my mind bombing isn't meant to help us. essentially we already "have" rich and fertile lands, and dropping bombs in Syria is realistically wasting what resources we do have, it'll turn the families of innocent people who get caught up in it against us, it'll help to "radicalize" people in our communities who do see the soon to be unfolding humanitarian crisis. and in the short term makes us all more likely to be attacked.
We're not bombing to help ourselves immediately, the immediate aim is to remove what is seen as a destabilizing violent and deadly force, in the region, which tortures and kills people there.
we immediately improve the life prospects of (whoever is left when all the bombs have fallen), even though there may have been a hug price to pay for that.
afterwards we hope to reap the rewards to having stopped a few training centers for terrorists, and hopefully have polarized opinions against extremes.
We need to be attacking the problem at home, the problem of radicalization in our own neighborhoods and countries - not bombing people 5000 miles away.
I think we may need to do both. if we only look out for our own, then once anyone who was sane has been either radicalized or killed, then Islamic state will expand outwards. - essentially like they always have.
(and referring them to a state is laughable, sure they may say they want a state, but they could never look after it, so far they captured huge amounts of land, destroyed anything of artistic value, burned anything they didn't want, raided all the banks in sight and neglected any farmland, so all the crops die. if the people building this state actually rand a state then they would soon collapse and beg the rest of the world for help!
I see your point, but they were all trained somewhere right?
how much training does one need to create a bomb? it's high school chemistry.