I have now completed the first draft of my new book, but this is not what I want to tell you about. There is something much more important that should concern us all right now, and that is the prospect of war.

David Cameron is pushing for our Government to drop bombs on ISIS, but if bombs were the answer to terrorism, why hasn’t the 14-year old war against terrorism already worked?

The US, France, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and UAE are already bombing ISIS. Yet ISIS terror attacks have increased dramatically. http://www.jihadwatch.org/2015/10/islamic-state-attacks-dramatically

‘According to the US military, their air campaign against IS has so far struck over 7,000 targets, killing 1,000 IS fighters every month. However, Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford says that IS ‘has not only survived these attacks but in many places is thriving, attracting up to a thousand new recruits from across the region and beyond’. This is because Western airstrikes themselves act as a recruiting agent for IS.http://www.stopwar.org.uk/index.php/news/ok-if-bombing-syria-isn-t-the-answer-what-would-you-do-about-the-rise-of-isis#

James Comey, the director of FBI, told congress in September 2014 that the US bombing of ISIS in Iraq had increased support for the group.

It is widely acknowledged, even by Tony Blair, that the US-UK invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the subsequent occupation, was crucial in creating IS. The New York Times reported in 2014 that the leader of ISIS spent five years in the US prison in Iraq, which acted as a central recruiting ground for ISIS fighters.

An expansion of UK airstrikes on IS would play into IS’s overall expansionist strategy. ‘Its strongest recruiting tactic is to present itself as the one true guardian of Islam under attack from “crusader” forces,” says Paul Rogers. He argues that, ‘the best advice, as with al-Qaida over more than a decade, is not to do what it wants you to do.’

As well as feeding the ISIS strategy, extending British attacks to Syria is likely to increase the risks of terrorist attacks on British people. They will certainly create more refugees. And also, they are highly likely to be illegal under international law.

Better solutions
* Britain should massively increase aid to the region. There is a humanitarian crisis going on in Syria at present, and it is imperative that we avoid the increased bitterness that people may feel resulting from loss of life and homes, lest they too are tempted to join IS.

* Pressure the British Government to broker a deal that would secure a political settlement and stop the key players fighting, bringing an end to the chaos in which ISIS thrives. Hugh Roberts, the former head of the North African section at the International Crisis Group, says that the US and UK have ‘sabotaged the efforts of the UN special envoys… to broker a political compromise that would have ended the fighting’.

* Pressure all our Governments to stop selling arms to the Middle East. The British Government has arms deals worth £6 billion to the Middle East which is very possibly falling into ISIS hands. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/scandal-britains-6bn-arms-deals-6225129

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/british-arms-sales-to-the-middle-east-are-probably-fuelling-isis-says-jeremy-corbyn-10364998.html
Indeed President Putin claims that 40 countries, including G20 countries, are funding ISIS directly or indirectly. http://anonhq.com/putin-exposes-40-countries-that-finance

* Don’t panic. Going about our normal life happily, is the best way to stop terrorists winning.http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/nov/20/how-do-i-live-in-the-shadow-of-terrorism

Nine reasons why we should not bomb Syria:

1. There is no evidence that there are sufficient troops on the ground to finish the work of the bombing; the 70,000 are very disparate & in the wrong place.
2. Britain risks being drawn into putting troops on the ground.
3 The risk of escalation is very high.
4 Terrorist attacks internationally have increased with military intervention by the West suggesting that military attacks are recruiting insurgents.
5 The Paris attacks were by hoemgrown terrorists not Syrians, so attacking ISIS in Syria will probably precipitate more attacks in Britain, making us less safe.
6 Bombing will create more refugees, and we already cannot cope with the ones we’ve got.
7 There is no such thing as a war with no collateral damage. Tony Blair promised British planes were highly accurate when they bombed Iraq and they killed millions.
8 This war serves Tory interests by distracting attention from problems at home and providing a big market for weapons. It does not serve the interests of British people as a whole.
9 ISIS is the product of Western intervention in the Middle East and we should leave well alone. Instead, we should stop selling arms to the Middle East and pressure other countries to do the same whilst working for a diplomatic solution