It would appear that Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP /Scottish Government could be about to change their stance on military action in Syria. If this is indeed the case then I feel that a very bad mistake is about to be made ,as it would be destroying the moral stance taken in the past as regards to illegal military actions undertaken by the various British governments.
When the term “illegal military action” is used it generally means any action taken in a foreign country without either a UN resolution to support it or an active request from the country in question to assist in combating an insurgency and at the present time there is neither in place.
Lets be quite clear, the events of Friday 13th November in Paris are abhorrent to most fair minded people and given that France is in the position of having to protect its citizens , then there could be a case that they should in some way respond to these attacks.
However in assessing the situation France finds itself in, lets be very honest. If you are going by the general reporting in the western press you could be forgiven for believing that the attacks of Friday 13th were simply an attempt to intimidate the general population of France and therefore an immediate response was warranted, but the fact is that these awful events were actually in themselves an act of retaliation. The reason for these attacks was that France had been engaged in bombing missions in Syria since September. Bombing missions which had no doubt killed many innocent people as well as some ISIS fighters.
Now lets also be clear that these bombing missions were illegal under international law, as they had neither the consent of the government of Syria or the backing of a UN mandate .
Now if Britain goes along the same rout taken by France then we will be in that exact position and in the case of the Scottish Government backing David Cameron in this without either a UN mandate or the permission of the Syrian Government then they will be participating in an illegal act, leaving the whole of the UK including Scotland liable to retaliatory attacks similar or worse than what happened in Paris last weekend.
Now not only that but we the Scottish people will be vicariously responsible for the killing of innocent people, because be under no illusion bombing towns kills probably more civilians than it does active fighters. Bombs are area weapons . They kill within a radius upwards of 500 metres , they destroy homes, schools, hospitals and they cause people to become refugees . Have a look at the image of bombing and shelling in Syria and tell me just what part of this discriminates between fighters and civilians
So I say to the Scottish Government, think long and hard before signing up to David Cameron’s march to war , because ,if you do then there are vary many ordinary Scots who, like me , will be saying “not in my name”
Bob
Bob Costello 
Spot on Bob. Why get rid of bullying in schools if you behave like a bully yourself. Most of the terrorists identified appear to be French. Maybe the French government should bomb Marseilles?
Nonsense. Nicola Sturgeon has said “Of course we’ll listen – & we share determination to defeat ISIS – but the case for airstrikes has not been made”… It has been made abundantly clear by both Sturgeon AND the Foreign Affairs Spokesman at Westminster, Alex Salmond, said “…that the involvement of the UN “would be a condition of the SNP looking at this issue.” saying that a UN resolution was a prerequisite for even considering such action.
I do not think that this is in the least nonsense Andy, you will note that Alex Salmond ,who is the foreign affairs spokesman for the SNP in Westminster ,stated that “a UN resolution was a definite prerequisite for any consideration of agreement to commence military action in Syria” whereas. Nicola Sturgeon made no such condition and this is why I have a fear that perhaps there is a difference of opinion as to the resistance to going to war.
I make no accusation of intention ,but only a fear that perhaps there is not quite the same commitment to resist war from the first minister as there is from Alex Salmond and this together with the announcement from Stewart Hossie that he would not object to a shoot to kill policy being implemented. This I found strange ,as there is a very marked difference in Scottish law compared to English law as regards the legality of killing someone who is suspected of killing or injuring another person. I found this eagerness to fall into the establishment line a bit worrying.
However, if she didn’t listen to Westminster she would be vilified. Listening is ok. In fact, listening to other people’s arguments are sometimes the best way to persuade them of yours. Only if they have an open mind I suspect.
(Ref ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, Stephen Covey)
Don’t listen to the rubbish stated by the ahem bbc watch both interviews. From Nichola and Alex in full not the bits the government and the so called state media want you to think.a prerequisite is that the UN are and have to be involved. Anna Subry a government minister in the hateful tory party was spouting this rubbish on question time on Thursday but she said Alex agreed with the tories.
I did look at the interviews Kevin and also Nocolas position at the conference and that was why i felt uneasy at the apparent change of emphasis. However now that the UN has came out with a position on ISIS it will be interesting how Nicola squares this with the will of the Scottish people