Dear Ben Howlet, please vote against the bombing of Syria

Here's the letter I sent to my MP Ben Howlett:

Dear Ben Howlett,

I am writing to urge you to vote against the bombing of Syria.

The onus is on those making the case for military action to show that it will do more good than harm. In my view they have not done this.

The legality of bombing is also in question. In order to go ahead with the bombing there would need to be a security council resolution passed that would allow it. As far as I no there has been no such resolution.

We do know that bombing raids will put the lives of our air crew at risk, and we do know that innocent civilians will die, no matter how careful we are. And for what? With the Russians supporting Assad, Turkey against the Kurds, Turkey and Russia in conflict with each other, Assad fighting everyone else in Syria including civilians, bombing by the USA and allies, the situation is so confused that it's impossible to be certain of the consequences of our actions.

Instead I advocate that the UK take two actions:

* Continuing with the safe havens outside Syria that we're already funding.
* Attempting to create an international strategy under the UN that would block all arms going into Syria, and also a financial blockade against ISIS.

I am not a pacifist, and in the case of ISIS in Iraq we are right to continue military action as this is entirely legal and has the clear aim of restoring Iraq to the Iraqi government.

Regards,

Tony Locke.