If England had sided with the Confederate State of America during the Civil War, my life as a black man would be very different today. During the American Civil War, England was the great empirical power and it was not unthinkable that they could have sided with the pro-slavery Confederacy. England’s primary concern was not my life in 2017, simply their interests in the nineteenth century. I can only hope our approach in Syria is not so short sighted. When empirical powers intervene or remain neutral in civil wars, the consequences reverberate for centuries. After launching fifty-nine Tomahawk missiles in Syria, the US has inserted itself into that nation’s civil conflict. Unless we can confidently say what our intervention will mean in the long term for Syrian people, we could very well be creating a future of Syrian oppression.

I wish not to argue for or against intervention in Syria. Rather, I am arguing that a higher ethic should govern these decisions. The Syrian question is a difficult one. Yes, Bashar al-Assad has done some terrible things, even to innocent children. On the other hand, the English in 1861 could have pointed to the terror Northern states actively participated in by pursuing runaway slaves and returning them to the south. Indeed, many states in the Union, like Kentucky, were slaves states themselves. England could have also pointed to Abraham Lincoln’s dismissal of habeas corpus as indicative of an unjust, totalitarian ruler who should be brought down. Who was the bad guy and who was the good guy? Surface analyses simply are not sufficient in these matters. Had the English sided with the Confederacy based on the above facts, history would judge the British in a very different way. How deeply have we analyzed the Syrian ordeal?

Empirical powers intervene in foreign matters based on their own (usually economic) interests, not for the sake of humanity. Trump may say the suffering of children prompted his response in Syria but that does not explain our anemic response to ethnic cleansing in Sudan. Surely many more children have suffered there. The selective interventions of empires are based on calculations which seldom prioritize the self determination of oppressed people. Had England prioritized its need for cotton to support its booming textile industry in the nineteenth century, the American Civil War would have concluded otherwise. Do we know for sure that there is a “good side” fighting in Syria? Do we have a clear understanding of how would-be migrants will be impacted if one side prevails over the other? Can we say with confidence that ISIS will be weakened or strengthened and to what degree, if the US allows internal opposition to combat the group absent US intervention? If we cannot answer these questions with certainty we risk condemning the Syrian people to a bleak future.

England did not formally ally with the south but it had no clear convictions. While Britain did legally recognize the status of the Confederacy, it never formally recognized it as a nation. Britain never signed a treaty with the rebels but it did build ships for the Confederate Navy. Ultimately, England needed the North’s wheat more than it needed the South’s cotton in that moment. Abraham Lincoln shrewdly pushed the Emancipation Proclamation to create a clear choice for England between a slave nation and a free one, although the Union did have states which practiced slavery. The optics would have been bad for England, an anti-slave nation, had they sided with the Confederacy. England’s decision had little to do with what was best for me in 2017. Politics, optics and interests coalesced to accidentally put the British on the right side of history.

We should be better than England as we decide our course in Syria. Will optics rule the day? Will we choose to act based on economic interests or other political considerations? Interventions and non-interventions have consequences. The English had no thought of what my black life in 2017 would be as they weighed their options in the nineteenth century. That thought is sobering. For the sake of Syrian children, I hope we are truly weighing what their lives will be like years from now.

syrian attack

Get relevant content delivered to you once a week