Posted on 08/30/2013 1:30:02 AM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
The Commons was the scene of one of the greatest foreign policy upsets in living memory today, after MPs voted against the government motion on military intervention in Syria.
The vote, which was lost by 272 to 285, brings to a close any hope of Britain participating in any military action against the regime of president Bashar al-Assad but it also serves to dramatically weaken the prime minister in the eyes of parliament and his party.
Amid shouts of 'resign' in the Commons chamber, Cameron said: "The British parliament does not want to see military action. I get that and the government will act accordingly."
The only possible comparison of a party leader not being able to command the support of his own side in a matter of foreign policy is Neville Chamberlain in the Norway debate of 1940.
Back then, Labour called a vote which effectively functioned as a vote of confidence in his leadership. When a quarter of Chamberlain's MPs voted with the opposition he resigned and Winston Churchill became prime minister.
It is highly unlikely that today's vote would face Cameron from power, but it is a brutal humiliation for a prime minister who clearly overplayed his hand on the Syria crisis.
(Excerpt) Read more at politics.co.uk ...
british petroleum is very unthrilled about this.
Paddy Ashdown told me that depressed him mightily, and Britain was sounding like it was turning into Denmark or, more accurately, maybe Sweden as Denmark still had some international ambitions.
I am sure that if the evidence against the Assad regime was strong enough then the planes would be warming up as we speak. What they got was an opinion based on almost nothing and they weren’t crazy about going there based on the paltry evidence.
If Obama has any evidence let him present it to the American people via Congress. He won’t - I don’t think he would get the numbers either!
I agree. This is all Obama’s fault for rushing to support Al Qaeda. Pity Cameron didn’t have the bottle to stand against Obama on his own initiative. What a mess!
I sat and watched around twenty minutes of the Parliament debate. I would strongly urge people to view the videoclip of the event. There are occasions when you appreciate the way that Brits argue the finer points of doing something of a major nature. If you can’t prove your point in debate....then you don’t win the debate, and you don’t get the votes necessary to carry out the action. It was pretty simple.
I wouldn’t say humiliation was the result. I don’t think Cameron ever had any four-star points to put on the table. There’s nothing to be gained by getting involved in this.
Wait till when he gets to the G-20 and Russia and China and Brazil spring on him they decided to drop the dollar.
“Theres nothing to be gained by getting involved in this.”
I remember in the recent past when National Guard units upped the age to enlist to 39, when the military was overlooking felonies to recruit young people, the push to allow females into combat roles, and a few weeks ago I saw something I never believed possible: a recently-issued pair of digital camouflage MATERNITY PANTS (with the elastic belly section). We are losing the atheist war against Islam because we don’t have enough people.
In either case, I’m glad Obama’s “Reichstag Fire” isn’t working.
Chimpanzee with a hand grenade.
The real killer yesterday was Germany’s statement that they are on Russia’s side in the Syrian mess. Amazing! When have Germany and Russia ever agreed on anything? This could only have happened because Americans re-elected the Worst President in American History.
The Brits don’t like Obama. It’s as simple as that.
At least he called back Parliament and had the courage to put it to a vote.
Hilarious. Cameron suffers the “humiliation”, but not Sparky the Wunder Prez. Couldn’t even manage to pull together a “Coalition of Zero”.
I'm no politician, but here's a hint to Cameron - If you do Hussein 0bama's (the devil's) bidding, you're very liable to suffer serious consequences.
Note to Obama: don’t diss a bust of Churchill or give a head of state a compilation of your finest speeches. Or DVD’s that don’t play on British tvs.
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