Syrian conflagration has from the start had the potential to extend into a world war says PETER OBORNE | Daily Mail Online

Syrian conflagration has from the start had the potential to extend into a third world war because bloodshed can spill into neighbouring states and drag in superpowers, writes PETER OBORNE.

Ever since the start of the terrible Syrian conflict almost six years ago, the British government has wanted Western military intervention to help get rid of President Assad.

But this policy seemed to have failed. Assad appeared close to winning the war, as Trump acknowledged last week when his press secretary said that Asad staying was a ‘political reality that we have to accept.’

But then came Tuesday’s dreadful chemical attack on the village of Khan Shaikhoun in northern Syria.

In order to counsel his White House team about the folly of this course, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson went to Washington to lobby them.

That attempt may have been fruitless at the time but Trump has now, it seems, been converted to supporting the need for military intervention.

Unfortunately, I cannot share the British government’s exultation which evokes the mood in No. 10 on the eve of the Iraq war in 2003 – with Theresa May now at risk of copying the poodle-like subservience Tony Blair showed to the then US President George W Bush…

MORE:‘I feel fearful for the future’, says PETER OBORNE | Daily Mail Online