Aleppo

For the past few weeks I’ve been revelling in the Christmas spirit. I love this time of year and all that it brings with it. But whilst I’ve been preoccupied with buying gifts, drinking wine and counting down to the Christmas holidays, there are people around the world for whom this is a distant dream.

Channel 4, one of the few news outlets who continues to report on the brutal conflict in Syria, last week uploaded this video.

I cried whilst watching it. How can you not?

In the UK our children are giddy with the excitement of presents to come. In Aleppo, children are facing a new year without their families. And one of the most upsetting things about this current situation is that we could have prevented it.

The UK’s decision in 2013 to not back military action in Syria could potentially be one of the most politically costly decisions we’ve ever made. Both government and opposition at that time felt that there wasn’t an appetite for war, and refused to act. I’ve written before on this topic; about how even when Assad used chemical weapons against his own civilians, including thousands of children – we did nothing.

We have been paralysed throughout this entire conflict, at every turn making the wrong decision. And the result? We’ve opened up a political vacuum for Russia to swoop in. Putin has used Syria to flex his military muscle, and it’s the civilians on the ground who are paying the price.

You cannot analyse the situation in Syria in isolation. The consequences of this conflict go far beyond the Middle East, and have major implications for European and world politics. As a direct result of our inaction we – and the rest of Europe – have allowed Putin to become the most influential politician in the region, and there is nothing we can do about it.

Why should that even matter? Because Putin doesn’t care about Syria. He cares about power. As though history is repeating itself, Russia is using the Middle East to play out its own proxy war against the super powers of the world. And it’s winning. Assad is so closely allied with Russia that if we act against him we will be instigating warfare against one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council. At the same time we’d be siding with rebel groups, and in the instance that they won the war (which is unlikely) – who on earth would take over? We have backed ourselves into a corner.

Now I don’t buy the shit espoused by some idiots who say that we don’t have a role to play in protecting the rest of the world. People are dying. Children are being murdered by a brutal regime, and we are doing nothing.

Watch that video again. Look at that woman’s heartbreak. Imagine what it’s like to be that young boy holding your dead brother, no family to comfort you. These poor people are suffering through no fault of their own, and it is heart breaking.

Is that a world you want to live in? Because I don’t.

So here’s what I’m doing: I’ve written to my local MP and you should too. I’ve written to the Foreign Secretary and to the Prime Minister. I’m a member of the Labour Party so I’ve written to them too. I want them to pressure the government – and I will not be a member of a party that is willing to watch this happen before us, so I’ve pleaded with them to do something.

I’ve signed this petition asking the Government to undertake air drops of aid to besieged Syrian civilians caught in the conflict. I’ve donated money to the White Helmets and to Save the Children. I’ve posted about it on social media and will continue to do so. We have got to stop this.

It’s Christmas for crying out loud. A time of joy, a time for peace, a time for love. There is none of that in Aleppo this December and we should all be ashamed.