AT LAST the UK Parliament shows some common sense in its rejection of armed intervention against Syria. The civil war in Syria is multi-sided, not simply rebels versus the Assad regime.

The rebel forces contain many jihadist and extreme Islamists. It is the task of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice to tackle those who use forbidden chemical weapons against their own population. It is not the right of any individual state to take matters into its own hands, (unless defending itself) it sets a dangerous precedent. Western politicians seem susceptible to ‘Something must be done! Syndrome... and we must do it,’ slipping back into the colonialist attitudes and gunboat diplomacy of two centuries ago.

Has their interference in Iraq and Afghanistan solved much, or simply unleashed new conflicts? Should not Western politicians tackle the moral decay and collapse of disrespect for human life and family life in their own countries, before lecturing other nations on how to live?

“Take the plank out of your own eye first...”

Norman Plaisted Vivian Road Newport