Blundering Towards War

Tension is not reduced by murdering scientists. 

Paul Flynn MP

The fourth Iranian scientist was killed yesterday. Teheran has been rocked by unexplained explosions. A cyber attack was conducted against Iran. War beckons. The nobility of purpose of the West’s crusades for justice ends in the sordid abuse of laughing soldiers urinating on the bodies of dead warriors.  Healthy brave young soldiers suffer fatal words or monstrous injuries to their bodies or mind.

A Welsh soldier’s funeral takes place today. He was shot twice, blown up by IEDs in two further incidents. He witnessed the nightmare death of his best friend. Tormented by his memories, he took his own life.

The duty of politicians is to avoid wars that will have no convincing purposes. In Iraq and probably Afghanistan the immense sacrifices of blood and treasure will have lamentable outcomes. Rotten regimes will be replaced by new rotten regimes.

Stupidly we do not learn from the lessons of history -including the history of the past ten years. We are blundering and stumbling into a new war in Iran. The UK are distracted and disinterested in reducing the threat of war. The Cassandras who warn of disaster are ignored or abused. 

A war between the West and Iran would have unimaginable consequences that will involve their client  forces of Hamas and Hezbollah. Our Foreign Secretary is silent on the murders. The result will not be to encourage openness on Iranian nuclear plans. It will inflame their anger and encourage them to ban IAEA inspectors from their country in the same way they are banned in Israel.

Britain must not be dragged into another avoidable war in which none of our national interests are under threat. Our brave soldiers deserve our protection from the horrors of mangled bodies and minds.

Paul Flynn is Labour MP for Newport West

This article first appeared in his blog, which can be linked here