Homs

No oil!

No. I think you're right jeni.

No oil and a very large army!

You could add Zimbabwe to the list of places we should have taken action long before Iraq etc - but as Jeni says - no oil. What hypocrites politicians are.

We are good at no-fly zones. That would have helped.

Perhaps we wasted too much bottle on previous wars, and haven't got any left.

No, i think it's just that there's no oil as the others have said

In 1965 and 1966 I used to go out with a medical student from Homs. We were both studying in Vienna: I was doing languages. We had only one thing in common - a love of arguing! It was never serious between us, but I think of that then 19 year old and wonder if he is OK. I suspect he stayed in the West when he qualified, but I'll never know. His family would be in Homs - it is a sickening thought, really.

I agree about oil being the usual motivator to interfere, but I think the West is realising that it is all so very complicated, and any action usually backfires. I just wish the red Cross or Red Crescent could have got in there properly and helped all the people, and that evacuations could have taken place.

They're in there to-day Joan. The need must be so great.

It's so horrible to hear of these 'revenge' killings that may be going on. Whole families. Doesn't hear thinking about. He is a monster!!!

bear. not hear. sorry.

It's disgusting that the world is just watching it happen.The Red Cross are there though.

Since beginning my research about Afghanistan I have been reminded that we in the West live lives far removed from what seems to me to be the anachronistic way of life in places like the Middle East. The culture is primarily tribal, artificial boundaries are less important than tribal links and the practice of 'an eye for an eye' is upheld by most. To us it is barbaric, to them a way of life that hasn't changed through the centuries. I have come to believe that a culture cannot be changed unless the people are literate and can be educated in new (better?) ways to live.
There are no easy answers and the desire to bring about change often leads to worsening situations like this, but to look on and do nothing seems just wrong.

I do so agree. We (the general public) are in danger of making snap judgements on what should be done without the knowledge of how things really are. These are virtually insoluble problems as long as the Chinese and the Russians maintain their current stance and in any case what we would consider to be the right thing may patently not be what the country needs. Thank God for the Red Cross and other agencies doing their very best to help

Just as I thought - the Red Cross can't get to where they are needed:

www.couriermail.com.au/news/breaking-news/red-cross-with-syria-aid-stopped-in-homs/story-e6freonf-1226287939194

Yes Joan. Because they don't want the world to see what is happening there.

But we do know - imagine how much worse (if possible) it would have been without modern communication.

One of their top people has the copurage to go against the regime.

God help him.

Abad Hussameddin

No fly zones no help when they are shelling from the ground. They prevent air attacks.
Unfortuntately the west - as in the European colonial powers, was instrumental in drawing the national boundaries, creating states including Israel, setting up and supporting dictators.
Obama was very wily when it came to Libya.
One of the few things that can be done is to draw up the financial drawbridge as they did in Libya. Freeze assets, financial sanctions, no foreign jollies for the families of dictators. Even that hurts the innocent - no money for drugs etc. The Swiss though are also quietly culpable for letting dictators from around the world stash away money they have stolen from their people.

Jess I know it's too late for that.

It seems Russia and China could live to regret not endorsing the UN resolutions.

here

Does this man have a good, sensible suggestion for a way of stopping the conflict?

Moncef Marzouki

He sounds a very honest man.

They must do something now.

This would be a war with a cause.

It's truly horrible. Words aren't enough anymore.

But their president doesn't care that the UN have people on the ground now ...he just carries on with his genacide programme ...he has the west's measure. Too many burnt fingers in pies not of our making ...and he knows the other muslim coutries will not get involved ...they didn't in Libya!
Sadly there is no financial gain for any other country. and sadly that would be the reason for 'humanitarian' action

From the Telegraph today.

"in one horrific scene, a man held up the limp corpse of a boy aged around seven years old, a gaping hole where the child’s nose and mouth should have been. “This child, what did he do to deserve this?” he screamed."

It's a horrible, cruel situation and one feels so helpless against such bare-faced brutality. Heaven help us, but I almost feel like saying, 'Come back Tony Blair'! He was wrong on Iraq but he was dead right to go into Sierra Leone and Kosovo. Wonder what he's thinking now - when he isn't counting his millions, that is.