I will be voting for military action – and pressing the case for a diplomatic strategy to secure lasting success.
So much of the present crisis – and of the intervening suffering – can be traced to our failure to move decisively against Assad two years ago.
It would be pusillanimous not to join France in Syria for fear of an ISIS attack here. But Tory backbenchers should go into any vote with their eyes wide open.
A visit to Kurdistan reveals the realities and the myths about the current conflict.
The Prime Minister’s insistence on Parliamentary consent – which he does not need – for operational decisions is crippling Britain’s capacity to act decisively.
European powers must pressure the Turkish President to end his misguided campaign against both his domestic opponents and the Kurds.
The Russian scheme has a major, obvious flaw: the Syrian regime is mostly fighting not ISIS, but other armed groups.
Without this strategic step-change in our approach, the UK’s involvement in air strikes would achieve very little, and could be counter-productive.
Having met Sir John as part of his investigations, and having questioned him earlier this year, I have no doubt he is determined to answer the central question of intent.
We need to send in Special Forces, as we did in Iraq in 2006-7.
His passionate defence of the welfare state runs counter to values that are truly embedded in their psyche: self-reliance, personal responsibility, entrepreneurialism.
It’s time for a Parliamentary prerogative to replace the Royal prerogative.
A legacy of the Corbyn surge, whoever wins the party’s leadership, is that getting its support for bombing in the autumn will be as problematic as ever – if not more so.
Cameron will need to bring his Party with him if he is to extend air strikes right across ISIS territory.
We will not be “bombing Syria”, but attacking carefully identified terrorist targets in the worst example of an “ungoverned space” that the modern world has seen.