Concerns over impacts of UK strikes on ISIL in Syria

As Britain is moving toward a crucial decision on whether to launch air strikes against ISIL terrorists in Syria, analysts are warning that the move could have serious backlashes on the country in terms of public dissatisfaction and national security threats. 

Reza Nadim, a political commentator from London, told Press TV that the chances for Britain to get militarily involved in Syria are high, but emphasized that any potential military campaign against ISIL in Syria will to the same degree lead to a rise in public dissatisfaction in Britain.    

“The British government has tried to manipulate the Paris terror attacks to justify having more air strikes (on  ISIL),” Nadim said. 

Nevertheless, he warned that military strikes that are launched in the name of fighting the ISIL will occasionally take heavy tolls on the civilians.  

“They are going to hit children, they are going to hit women, they are going to hit people,” he said.

“We are going to have to see a lot more deaths. We are going to see a lot more refugees and a lot more refugees,” Nadim said, adding that this will eventually help the ISIL with its recruitment efforts for new terrorists. 

He further expressed concern that Britain could soon find itself at major security risks as a result of waging a direct war on ISIL terrorists. 

“For Britain to go and attack ISIL is inviting more problems on [Britain’s] shores,” said Nadim. “We have to remember that when the Paris attacks happened ISIL said the reason they were doing this was a response to France’s air strikes in Syria.”  

He emphasized that military action will not solve the Syrian crisis, adding that the world needs to find a political solution to end the atrocities that are taking place in the country.  

Clive Hambidge, a London-based political commentator, told Press TV that the fate of any decision to launch air strikes on ISIL terrorists in Syria hangs in the balance. 

This, Hambidge said, is because that there are serious splits inside the Labour party – that has been traditionally opposing any new military involvement in the Middle East – over the issue. 

He warned that Britain is at risk of security threats by the ISIL as does France and other European countries that are fighting ISIL. 

Hambidge further emphasized that Britain needs to promote moderate Muslims to approach radical Islamists to discourage them from committing acts of violence.  

This channel, he said, will be destroyed if Britain starts a military campaign against ISIL in Syria.   

Hambidge also said the fate of any potential call by France on NATO to adopt a unified action against ISIL is still similarly unclear. 

This, he said, is due to the military presence of Russia in Syria.

On the other hand, there have been suggestions that the downing of the Russian plane was not the work of Turkey and was perpetrated by the CIA, Hambidge added. 

“So the situation is very, very complicated.” 

Mark Anthony France, the local organizer of the Momentum activist movement in Birmingham, told Press TV that Cameron’s push to launch military strikes against the ISIL is due to “domestic political reasons”, stressing that the prime minister’s agenda is not based on “any genuine concern for the victims of Paris terror attacks”.   

Anthony emphasized that Britain lacks the adequate military capability to create any significant change on the ground against ISIL in Syria. 

“I think the British military capacity is simply not there and this is more about domestic politics, the desire to isolate the anti-war leadership of the British Labour party,” he said.  

“Cameron wants to have a war so that he can reap the political advantages that come from launching the wars as did the late prime minister Margaret Thatcher through war in the Falkland Islands in 1982.” 

Anthony accused the British political leadership of “cynically seizing upon the public anger” that emerged after Paris terror attacks to press ahead its own agenda. 

Nevertheless, he warned that this could result in a backlash given that the British people  have learned from the experiences of previous wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.  

“The reality is that people understand that the lengthy campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq did nothing to make Britain more secure as a nation,” said Anthony. 

He added that intelligence reports have already established a link between the British involvement in wars in the two countries with the London terrorist attacks in 2005. 
Anthony further warned that if Britain decides to launch any military action in Syria, it will expose itself to potential future terrorist attacks by ISIL.  

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