Right or wrong, whatever your perspective, Britain is now bombing ISIS in Syria and the relevant questions become:
1) Whether British bombing will generate national prestige and strengthen bonds to countries such as France which, in turn, empowers Britain to pursue its national interest, or have an inverse effect by, for example, promoting torpor and lack of focus.
2) Correspondingly, whether or not abstaining from bombing would hurt national prestige, bespeaking a lack of will or capacity to engage, thereby weakening the country’s capacity to pursue its national interest;
3) Whether British bombing can be reasonably expected to have a positive or a negative net effect in concrete actual military terms;
4) Whether potential negative outcomes (in such military terms) outweigh the potential symbolic benefits wrought by projecting national force, or are outweighed by these.
What do you think ! ! !
