The decision by the USA to intervene militarily in Syria following the appalling use of chemical weapons by Assad or Russia on innocent Syrian people appears to have been taken in isolation from the rest of the world, and possible the rest of the US Government. These missile strikes appear to have been welcomed and rejected in equal measure by various politicians including many here in the UK. Whilst launching weapons without any form of broader agreement may appear to be much more provocative and deadly than the sales of weapons to a nation like Saudi Arabia, the fact that those weapons are then being used to murder innocent peoples in Yemen means that we cannot disconnect ourselves from the final outcome any more than the USA can claim to have clean hands following this weeks missile attack. Trying to resolve the rights and wrongs in both of these conflicts is clearly very difficult and certainly cannot be determined by individual nations acting in isolation irrespective of whether these actions are to sell or launch missiles. The use of US missiles and sale of UK weapons cannot be claimed to have protected the citizens of either of our countries. There has to be a distinction between weapon sales and commercial sales. If The Saudis were using Rolls Royces to mow down Yemenis it might create a difficult form of analysis but it is impossible to attribute any peaceful value to the sale of a military plane or any weapon. We need our politicians to focus on bringing peace throughout the world so that our streets are also less open to attack.