The best that can be said for Jeremy Corbyn’s response to air strikes against the Assad regime is that he is at least consistent.
Why did he assert that the smart cuff meted out last night risked ‘escalating further… an already devastating conflict’? Because in Corbyn’s worldview, it is the felling of chemical weapons factories, not the extermination of children with the chemical weapons those factories produce, that escalates conflict.
Why did he echo Syrian state media in questioning the legality of military action? Because Corbyn is a cynic who calculates that feigning concern for the global rules-based order — something he believes in only intermittently — is useful for stalling, deflection and water-muddying.
Why did he accuse Theresa May of ‘taking instructions from Washington and putting British military personnel in harm’s way’? Because this former chair of Stop the War has never met a moral challenge he wouldn’t rather flunk than share a side with the United States.
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