I AM writing with reference to ‘The evil of humanitarian wars’ by Jonathan Cook (New Age, June 29).
Cook seems to have missed the point that after two largely failed military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, the United States has lost the will to intervene militarily in Syria. Syria fits the so-called humanitarian military intervention. Here is a brutal dictator Bashar Assad slaughtering his own people and a case can be made for such military intervention to save lives of ordinary Syrians. Yet, the United States and its allies have shown little interest other than diplomatic support for the Syrian rebels. Even they have refused to provide anti-Assad forces with much weapons, while Russia continues to provide arms to the regime.
Obviously, the United States is no longer willing to play the role of the global policeman. Even the neo-conservatives, who earlier were ardent supporters of humanitarian intervention, are keeping quiet. Only Senator John McCain is calling for intervention and he is largely ignored. The American public has lost their appetite for any intervention.
With Americans lacking the political will and other western countries lacking the military capability, wars are increasingly internalised. Syrians will have to fight their own war — either they will overthrow Assad on their own or they will perish. This is why America stood by while the Iranian regime slaughtered its people for protesting against vote-rigging by the ruling mullahs.
With both the American people and the policymakers unwilling to shed American blood other than lip service, military interventions by the United States will be replaced by local conflicts such as Sunnis slaughtering Shias in Iraq and Pakistan and vice versa or Burmese Buddhists slaughtering Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar will become the order of the day. But it may be reminded that when America lost interest in the outside world after the First World War, the Nazis and the Fascists tried to destroy the world with catastrophic consequences.
Mahmood Elahi Ottawa
Canada