'Fight Your Own Battles: Foreign Powers Shouldn't Intervene in the Middle East' - The Versus Debate

Filmed at the Lilian Baylis Studio, Sadler's Wells Theatre on 17th July 2013.

As foreign forces prepare to leave Afghanistan the Taliban remains undefeated. The death toll in Iraq has topped 100,000 since the invasion in 2003. On this record is there much of a case to be made for liberal intervention? Isn't it time to ditch what British MP Rory Stewart has called the 'extraordinary smug sense of moral obligation, that combined with paranoia and megalomania drives us into places where angels fear to tread'? While many in the West believe we should arm the Syrian rebels, isn't it obvious that once again we would be meddling in the internecine rivalries of different factions in a country we barely understand, with no prospect of bringing about a happy outcome? Successful interventionism requires knowledge: do we know enough about the country's culture, language and politics? Most of the time, the answer is a resounding 'no' and we should keep well away.

Nonsense, say the supporters of humanitarian intervention. With great power comes great responsibility, and the West has a moral duty to protect peoples unable to defend themselves against brutal oppressors. What's more, there are sound practical arguments to be made for getting involved. Failing to intervene and hasten a resolution in Syria, for example, could cause greater problems down the road: the conflagration is already dragging the country's Shi'ite and Sunni neighbours into the fray, and risks igniting the entire region. And by supporting the rebels we guarantee ourselves a stake in a post-war Syria and influence in the Middle East in general.

[dustman]

They talk about the number of people killed by these regimes, but fail to mention that many times more people die in these wars either directly, or what is worse, through destabilizing these regions you cause much more suffering and death through starvation, etc and sometimes other regimes come to power since we eliminate their adversaries and sometimes those who come to power are worse than the original regime. Not to mention we breed hate through our interventions and waging war, blowing up peoples families, and you better believe they will hate you when they see their children in pieces.

[Northstar-Media]

Susan abualli knocks the whole debate out of the ball park & really says it like it is.

[CanIRunWithYou]

That's because they're journalists, not soldiers. Civilian control of the military is vital to democracy.

[MrJudas]

Answer to the cashew nut kid on intervention in Syria being on moral grounds. Well my opinion is no because, Syria and Iran has a joint defense system, the target is Iran because it is a link between Asia, Europe and Africa. If West gets hold of Iran and succeeds in replacing the current government with the one that favors them, it would be the greatest strategic point for them to export oil to Asia with the shorted pipelines.

[JokerGotNoRules]

well there was no problem in AFGHANISTAN so we had nothing to deal with you were youself a problem and brought yourself to AFGHANISTAN. for those who speak media please shut your mouths cuz i was living in Afghanistan during the Taliban.

[MoeYES]

He works for Aljazeera, what do you expect?

[enticingmuffin]

Shadi doesn't know what he's talking about