I don’t normally write to my MP but today I made an exception. This is what I said:
Dear Ms Harman,
As one whose hands are so blood-soaked already I can only imagine that you face the prospect of another war in the Middle East (and beyond) blithely, or at least with the indifference of one who has made herself cold to the horrors of carnage. But for many who live in your constituency, in your country, and in your world, the prospect of more indiscriminate slaughter, of bombs raining down upon bombs, fills us with pain and terror. We are exhausted of mourning already, and we know another war will do nothing to make the world a place in which we can live free from fear and oppression. As a constituent who shares in your catastrophic history against his will, I ask that you take a stand on Wednesday and vote against bombing Syria. Perhaps you will consider listening to those whose sight and conscience are not so distorted by their direct implication in the atrocities of the last decade. I hope you can find a way to change your old ways, not for your salvation, but for those – our friends and lovers, brothers and sisters, and those who your history has left friendless, unloved, and without family – who will suffer again.
Yours sincerely,