War more about US democracy than Syria

Paul Revere, the American patriot, has gone down in history as the man who warned his fellow countrymen at the outbreak of the American War of Independence in 1775 that “the British are coming”.

Yesterday, the New Daily News, which boasts of the largest circulation of any daily newspaper in the US, had a bold headline taking up most of its front page: “The British aren’t coming!”

US president Barack Obama faces the prospect of acting alone on Syria after British prime minister David Cameron was defeated in the House of Commons on Thursday. Mr Cameron has now ruled out British military involvement in Syria.

He had been forceful in calling for a British response to the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons.

Former Labour prime minister Tony Blair has suggested that Britain should intervene, because Syria is “a breeding ground of extremism infinitely more dangerous than Afghanistan in the 1990s”.

“It is time we took a side: The side of the people who want what we want,” Mr Blair stressed. It seemed, however, that the House of Commons was worried that Britain was joining the Americans in a headlong rush into another conflict, like the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan into which Mr Blair led Britain.

The crucial parliamentary vote was lost, because 30 Conservative members voted against the government, and a further 33 failed to show up.

Next year will mark the centenary of the outbreak of World War I, which arguably laid the seeds for World War II. People should ask what lessons were learned?

After the First World War the League of Nations was established to ensure the same thing did not happen again, but it failed to prevent the Second World War, because too many countries ignored it. The United Nations Organisation was then established at the end of the Second World War to prevent another such conflict.

For all its failings — and the UNO has had many — it seemed that the British and the Americans were ignoring it in calling for action on Syria. They seemed unwilling to await for the report of the UN inspectors into the recent use of chemical weapons.

Mr Cameron’s defeat in the House of Commons could have Congressional repercussions for President Obama. With the danger of American involvement in Syria looming, some 140 members of Congress, including 21 Democrats, signed a letter demanding formal Congressional approval before any American military intervention in Syria.

The US Constitution stipulates that only Congress can declare war on behalf of the US. The protesting Congressional representatives warn that if the President does not seek formal Congressional approval, he would be violating the country’s Constitution.

This is not about democracy in the Middle East; it is about democracy in the USA.