Complex reality:Tunisians protest against terrorist attack at Bardo museum, March 2015. Demotix/Chedly Ben Ibrahim. All rights reserved.
The abhorrent Paris attacks have reduced political and public debate on the ongoing conflict in Syria to one of ‘to bomb or not to bomb’ ISIS. And those who are against Syria airstrikes are accused of being “terrorist sympathisers”.
In itself, the decision to bomb ISIS in Syria in response to these attacks would be rash and reckless, driven by the belief that only a military intervention can satisfy the public’s need for action from its Government. Shocked by the terrible tragedies, people have an understandable sense that ‘Something must be done’. And so we turn too easily, too quickly to the question of military action, as if that were the only option, the only way to do something.
