Boris Johnson’s call for demonstrations outside the Russian embassy yesterday in parliament were childish. He has turned out to be a very big disappointment to many in his first cabinet post, demonstrating incompetence and poor judgement and appearing out of his depth.
The terrible suffering in Aleppo shocks the world. There are two sides in every war and the Russians and their allies clearly want to bring this one to an end as quickly as possible, achieving their strategic objectives with a good deal better focus that the shambolic military and political policy of the American led coalition. Certainly killing civilians on purpose is a war crime, but when the enemy is entrenched within civilian infrastructure, it is inevitable that it will happen.
The quickest way to stop the suffering is not by the unhinged proposal of taking on Russia in the air above the city with western air power, but to get the rebels who have clearly lost, to leave the city under safe conduct. Only an imbecile can suppose that somehow further military intervention by new forces with more bombing, as some suggested yesterday in the Commons, could make things better.