Prime Minister /u/Fresh3001 today released a statement responding to the Leader of the Opposition /u/imnofox, who had authored an article in The Spinoff criticising the PM's support of Western airstrikes against chemical weapon manufacturing facilities of the Syrian Arab Republic.

As it stands, I am personally opposed to war and other conflict. Prolonged intervention does lead to the deaths of innocent civilians, the destruction of vital infrastructure, and typically reduces the overall quality of life for those living in the affected area. This is something we should, as a global community, attempt to avoid.

Nation building and the toppling of dictators is a noble idea in theory, but in practice it doesn't work, and often the motives behind such notions are worse than malicious. However, there is a strong case for limited intervention, and a moral one at that.

While the international community cannot simply remove dictators and autocrats without substantial cost to all parties involved, a range of other actions can be taken to impede their actions, to corral the potential activity of a rogue state. On one end of this spectrum of action is a simple condemnation, in the middle economic sanctions, and on the other is limited military intervention.

When you have an autocratic leader who is resorting to the illegal use of chemical weapons on his own civilian population in the midst of a civil war, I think the duty of the international community is clear. When the same leader has committed multiple atrocities of a similar nature throughout the course of his reign, not just during the civil war, and when economic sanctions since 2012 have resulted in no change, limited military intervention is the only remaining option to prevent further civilian deaths.

Precision strikes by aircraft and missiles on military targets do not often result in the deaths of civilians, and were they to cause any by whatever unforeseen, tragic, circumstance that might arise, the objective of the mission is not compromised. The two largest chemical weapon attacks in Ghouta in 2013 resulted in the deaths of more than 800 Syrian civilians. This latest attack in Douma caused at least 70 deaths.

The Leader of the Opposition cannot really believe that the impact of limited strikes on military targets is a worse crime than those listed above. He cannot really believe that economic sanctions would do anything to prevent further civilian deaths. He cannot really believe that to stand by and do nothing would stop Bashar al-Assad from continuing to massacre his own people. If he does, I would have to call into question either his intelligence or his integrity - and either way it does not reflect well upon him.