On Syrian Refugees... [and the fruits of anti-interventionist idealism]

The War in Syria ongoing since Spring 2011, and consequent suffering of the Syrian people, has at last gripped the public consciousness, but it took dead babies washing up on the shores of Turkey, -as their desperate families try to flee the region- before well meaning middle class Western liberals decided 'something must be done'.

Now we see a myriad of digital petitions aswell as articles in the Independent and Guardian, demanding in their traditional, self-righteous way, that Britain must do more to ease the plight of those fleeing the region, by opening the door to the most desperate and destitute refugees among them, and more importantly writing a message on a piece of plain a4 or preferably a3 paper.

Needless to say a number of Politicians and public personalities have heeded this righteous call. Never wanting to miss a chance to improve their public image they now suggest the moral thing to do is to act! That we can't just sit idly by enjoying our privilege and freedoms while the long suffering people of the Middle East flee in droves. Which is exactly what they've been doing for years, but now they've decided it's the wrong course of action, they're gracious enough to tell everybody else what to do.

Why has it taken so long for the moral outrage and self righteous voice of the liberal middle classes to be heard on this issue, where have they been for the past four years?

Well, perhaps a little paradoxically they have actually been very vocal on the issue of Syria, particularly by opposing and attempting to block any attempts by Western Government's to intervene and assist the Syrian people while their homes were being shelled, chemical and biological bombs being dropped on them and military helicopters were strafing them through the streets of Damascus.

Why were the Syrian people subject to these attempts of annihilation at the hands of the Syrian State?

For merely daring to attempt the overthrow of the nepotist dictatorship of hereditary ruler Bashar Al-Assad's Ba'ath party, for attempting to assert their right to a say in how their country was governed.

Traditional anti-Western, middle class rabble rousers such as Robert Fisk and John Pilger, supporters of anyone who claims to oppose 'American Imperialism'; George Galloway and The SWP and new recruits like Owen Jones and the 'Stop the War' coalition were among the foremost critics of attempts by various Western Governments to help the Syrian people, while they were being shelled, shot, imprisoned and tortured. They were leant credibility (or not depending on your perspective) by the likes of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Russia State Sponsored media outlet Russia Today, whoever the Chinese bureaucrat responsible for Foreign Affairs is, and obviously the autocratic regime of Iran and their State ran Press TV, all interests with a very strong motive for discrediting and destabilizing the West while portraying it as interfering in their own sphere's of influence.

This liberal mediocracy formerly opposed to doing anything for the Syrian people because of their isolationist and idealistic 'anti-war' views, are now the same people saying something must be done, that we must act humanely, that 'we must open our arms and welcome these poor, suffering, fearful and dispossessed people', in all likelihood they'd have never been in this position if Western Governments had ignored the sentimental moralizing of their populace and acted in 2013 or sooner.

Perhaps the greatest argument against democracy in the last 10 years is being provided everyday by the populations of democratic societies, particularly those who dance to the media tune, are they still so proud of their pacifism now it's effects have come to fruition?

I think that's unlikely, they will probably just do what they always do and blame 'the West' for the plight of the refugees from Syria and other assorted war torn countries.

I wonder if this huge clamour to "help" them now that they are dispossessed, robbed of all dignity, security, independence, homeland and heritage, will go some way to assuage the guilty conscience these moralo-idealists should, but likely don't feel, over their insistence that 'the West' leave Al-Assad unhindered in his quest to entirely destroy the Syrian people?