Bill Carmichael: Our arms will not help Syria

Our leaders are also hoping – fingers crossed – that these weapons do not fall into the hands of the even more bonkers jihadi fanatics who would be likely to turn them on us – as happened with our “allies” in Libya, who started murdering every Westerner they could get their hands on once we’d helped them get rid of Colonel Gaddafi.

In fact we have no way of controlling who gets the weapons, as the Syrian rebels consist of loosely affiliated groups with no one in overall control – and few if any of them are friends of democracy and freedom.

Meanwhile Russia, in response to the EU’s decision to lift the arms embargo to Syrian rebels, has announced it is sending a sophisticated anti-aircraft missile system to bolster al-Assad’s regime.

As these missiles are capable of shooting passenger jets out of the skies above Israel, we can’t expect the Jewish state, the only democracy in the entire region, to stand by and do nothing.

And to add to this combustible brew, the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has sent thousands of fighters into Syria to support the regime against the rebels. The EU has now decided to add more weapons to the mix. What could possibly go wrong?

I don’t pretend to have the solution for the Syrian bloodshed. It is an intractable conflict in which long-suppressed sectarian hatreds have bubbled to the surface.

But it is easy to be swayed by the heartbreaking suffering of the civilian population and become convinced that “something must be done” and that we have some responsibility for the chaos.

In truth our powers to influence matters in Syria are severely limited and the violence there is not our fault.

Despite what the Left would have you believe, the fighting in Syria has nothing to do with oil, Western imperialism, Nato, Israel or global inequality.

At the heart of the conflict is a centuries old schism in Islam that to this day cleaves asunder Muslim communities in bitter enmity around the globe.

Shia and Sunni have been busily slaughtering each other for more than 1,300 years and the Syrian rebellion is just the latest franchise in this never-ending feud.

We should offer humanitarian assistance, of course, but I am afraid it may be beyond our powers to persuade Muslims to be more tolerant towards each other.

Grim life cycle

Is Judge Alan Goldsack right when he calls for children to be removed from criminal families to end the “rightening” cycle of reoffending?

The outgoing Recorder of Sheffield pointed out this week that he is now dealing with the grandchildren of criminals he defended or prosecuted 40 years ago. He said: “Crime runs in families in the same way that being a doctor, teacher or lawyer does.” And he argued that the solution was to take away babies born into criminal families before the next generation of offenders could be created.

But isn’t this an admission of failure by the criminal justice system? The judge appears to be abandoning hope that we can deter criminals, still less reform them, and the only remaining drastic remedy is for the state to take their children away.

The judge is absolutely right when he says that many criminals enjoy crime and see it as a way to a good lifestyle.

Perhaps if the chances of getting caught were higher – and the punishments tougher – generations of offenders wouldn’t see crime as such a comfortable option?