Columns

As I write this, and probably as you read it, a despot is killing his people. State violence against rebels in Syria has led to the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians, who only want the freedoms that everyone else has. Kofi Annan has put forward a six-point peace plan that Syria, in anger at being expelled from the Arab League, looks likely to reject.

The Templar suggests the time for niceties is over. The time for talking is done. The time has come to spread the democracy that Assad is so keen to demolish. The time has come to intervene. Intervention has already worked in the fight to remove Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. The West needs to stand up for its democratic ideals and bring this bloodbath in Syria to a swift and categorical end.

Diplomacy hasn’t worked and probably won’t work. Diplomacy is a myth that baby leaders tell each other at nap time. There is no reasoning with a crazy person, calm though he may seem. The Arab League has tried that route. The world has tried expulsion, putting Syria in the naughty chair and whatever else mollycoddling socialists do these days. This man doesn’t understand reason, he only knows force. That’s what it takes to get rid of this tyrant, and the Templar implores the world to do it. The rebels cannot survive on arms alone, they need back-up from the air and they need it soon. How long must we sit whilst fellow humans die at the hands of this animal?

The UN wants to send peacekeeping troops to Syria. Ha! I agree, because that worked in, oh that’s right, nowhere. Assad is probably laughing at the West, “oh look at those stupid people trying to come and babysit my country”. If he doesn’t want to give up power, power must be taken from him. Whether that happens with him living or dead, it will be no less than he deserves. The people will love the West for bringing an end to this conflict and, the Templar suggests, it could use some good press in the Middle East.

Here is my personal plea to Mr Obama to grow some balls and bomb the hell out of Assad. The time for talk is over. The time for action was long ago, democracy must come to Syria and at all costs. Get rid of Assad? Yes we can.

The Tory Templar