Right. Everyone is blowing up about the fact that the UK and the US are looking at possible involvement in the Syrian conflict. I am not a political expert by any means (and I have the Middle Eastern Politics module results from my degree to back that claim up) but I have to say, I am really annoyed by the number of people who are taking to my favourite social media platforms to condemn any interference by Western powers in the conflict.

The fundamental problem I have with their viewpoint is that what is happening in Syria is a humanitarian crisis. I am entirely in the camp of  “the US and friends should sod off out of other peoples business”, especially when it involves a certain oil-rich and politically imbalanced part of the world, but I’m also in the camp of us all caring about our fellow man. There have been continuous attacks made against the Syrian population for years now, but somehow that doesn’t matter because there is international bureaucracy at play.

And frankly, that sickens me a little bit.

One of my friends’ husbands is Syrian, and she has hardly been able to see him since the start of the revolution (as it initially was) in Syria. The UK government won’t let him come to this country because of policy, and she has embraced that fact and instead put all her efforts into coordinating collection efforts for care-packages to be sent to the schools and hospitals of affected zones. She has daily reports of innocent civilians being involved in the conflict, and for years no-one other than her seems to have cared.

So you can understand why it frustrates me to see people suggesting that “this isn’t our business”, “we don’t have to follow the USA again” and such comments. We DO have a duty to do something. The democratic west largely supported the revolutions which swept the Arab world while I was living in Morocco, and I really think that did something to raise the spirits of those in that neck of the woods who were fighting to change the status quo. It must be unbearably disheartening for them as the same people decry the idea of helping their fellow man. If I was one of the Arab revolutionaries looking at us right now, I’d wonder if I really wanted to be like the “democratic west” if we’re willing to step into wars where oil is at stake, but not ones with a seriously high human toll.

I understand that this is a paper-thin argument, and that there are a huge number of political facets I’ve not understood here, but I can’t help asking myself how much does that matter? The Assad regime is slaughtering people, and the rebels are doing the same. How’s about the rest of the world gets off their arses and reminds them that we don’t go in for that around here.