Syria: to bomb or not to bomb?

Josh , our new data officer, writes:

At best a three way civil war, where the Assad regime is butchering its own people, where ISIS is indiscriminately savaging anyone who disagrees with its warped view of Islam, and where we have factions of different rebel groups fighting to gain control, is a very complex situation to get involved in.

Only a few years ago, the world was in outrage at the suspected use of chemical weapons being used by Assad against his own people. Our Government at the time, wanted to go in and bomb the Assad regime, now our Government wants to in effect support the Assad regime in its fight against ISIS. Now anyone who has any doubts about the effectiveness of the bombing campaign, has been reportedly called 'Terrorist sympathises'.

It is correct that we are in fact bombing in Iraq already and what sense does it make to stop at a border that ISIS themselves do not agree to. Apart from one simple fact, in Iraq we are there at the request of the Iraqi Government and with a credible and improving ground force in support of our bombing. David Cameron announced that he believes there to be 70,000 'moderate' rebels to support our bombing. The problem with this is they are separated into many factions and are not really in the positions we need them to be. Furthermore, how can we say we are supporting these 'moderate' rebels who want to take control of their country from Assad, if we are reliant on support from Assad's biggest ally Russia?

What happens when the bombing stops? In Libya we seemed to not have a plan, and now that country is again in civil war. Syria will never prosper without proper democracy, without the countries, that are currently bombing it, spending equal amount of money and resources building up the country again. Hence showing that the 'West' is not at war with it, actually we are trying to help. If after the bombing mission, we leave the country to fend for itself, we are inviting more radical groups to occupy the space.

No one is saying we should do nothing to try to bring an end to the death cult that is ISIS, but we believe that there has to be another way. What will a few more bombs, dropped onto civilian areas achieve? Without a credible plan on how we help transform the failed state of Syria into the prosperous, wonderful country it once was, then we should not rush into war.