UK decision to join Syria bombing is a boost for Barack Obama

Britain’s decision to join the bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria – confirmed after an all-day debate in parliament on Wednesday is a much-needed boost for Barack Obama, analysts said on Wednesday, and will help to mend fences between the two allies after the UK’s damaging no vote two years ago.

The extension of Royal Air Force bombing from Iraq to Syria will send a message to the president’s critics at home and abroad that the coalition against Isis is united and determined, observers believe.

Obama himself welcomed the parliamentary vote when, using the acronym Isil, he stated: “Since the beginning of the counter-Isil campaign the United Kingdom has been one of our most valued partners in fighting Isil. We look forward to having British forces flying with the coalition over Syria, and will work to integrate them into our ‘coalition air tasking orders’ as quickly as possible.”

But earlier on Wednesday there was a dissenting voice from the man Obama beat in the 2008 presidential election. Republican John McCain told the BBC: “Then we will have some token aircraft over there from the British and they’ll drop a few bombs, and we’ll say thank you very much. The president will be able to say ‘now we have the British who will be helping us’, and that’s good.”

McCain, a war veteran who chairs the Senate armed services committee, added: “Airstrikes alone won’t win a conflict but it’s good to have increased airstrikes, it’s good to have increased air activities, it’s good to have shows of support from our British friends. So I’m glad of it, thank you, we appreciate it!”

But, he concluded: “To say that it’s going to make a significant difference, no, I’ve got to be a little more candid than that.”

The remarks were dismissed by White House press secretary Josh Earnest. “I’m disappointed that Senator McCain would speak so cavalierly to diminish the important contribution of one of the United States’s closest allies,” he said, speaking before the UK parliamentary vote, which was 397 to 223 in favour and caused a rift in the opposition Labour party.

“The fact is we’ve asked every member of our 65-nation coalition to ramp up their contributions to this effort, and if the British parliament were to vote in favour of this decision and the British government were to follow through on this commitment of additional resources to the effort, that’s obviously something we would warmly welcome.”