Syria...

[Egbutt Wash]

Unless you keep yours in a coal mine it will not survive a nuclear war.

[VW BUSH]

The Shia's are about 12% of Syria's population, 75% of it is Sunni.
Sunni's don't like Iran which is 95% Shia and about 40% of the worlds total Shia population
Nobody likes Israel especialy Iran, they have been persecuted from the beginning of time.....
Quite a mess.

I've got an 8v so Im not too bothered

[Poached]

Religious divisions...how tiresome .

[Bill_the_Bear]

I wonder how we would all feel were the situation reversed?

What if one of the peaceful demonstrations of the last few years in Britain had resulted in the British Army attacking the protesters?  What if whole counties and cities were under daily attack from artillery and the Royal Air Force?  What is out friends and families had their homes, their jobs, their lives, destroyed?  What if we were starving, waiting each day for the bomb or sniper that kills us?  What if millions of Britains had fled to Ireland and France where they were interned in makeshift camps?  What if after all this a nerve agent was used on Birmingham or Glasgow or Leeds?

And Syria said to us... "Its nothing to do with us, we shouldn't be risking our own lives for you, you're all as bad as each other anyway." and did nothing to help.  Do you think we'd thank them for that?  Would we consider their decision 'understandable'?  I doubt it.

But never mind eh?  Please do continue to advance all the excuses for not becoming involved so everyone can keep a clear conscience and feel morally superior.

We are involved.  Because we are all humans.  We should be protecting the weak and standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.  We should be doing this, if for no other reason, because it is what we would want others to do for us.  Whatever the reasons, whatever the complex political or social background, it does not matter!  There is one thing we need to remember, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  We are all responsible for what happens in Syria because we are all responsible for our own decisions.  What happens after is a different question.  Oppose evil and protect the weak, then we will have earned the right to make judgements, not before.

[clipperjay]

I wonder how we would all feel were the situation reversed?

What if one of the peaceful demonstrations of the last few years in Britain had resulted in the British Army attacking the protesters?  What if whole counties and cities were under daily attack from artillery and the Royal Air Force?  What is out friends and families had their homes, their jobs, their lives, destroyed?  What if we were starving, waiting each day for the bomb or sniper that kills us?  What if millions of Britains had fled to Ireland and France where they were interned in makeshift camps?  What if after all this a nerve agent was used on Birmingham or Glasgow or Leeds?

And Syria said to us... "Its nothing to do with us, we shouldn't be risking our own lives for you, you're all as bad as each other anyway." and did nothing to help.  Do you think we'd thank them for that?  Would we consider their decision 'understandable'?  I doubt it.

But never mind eh?  Please do continue to advance all the excuses for not becoming involved so everyone can keep a clear conscience and feel morally superior.

We are involved.  Because we are all humans.  We should be protecting the weak and standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.  We should be doing this, if for no other reason, because it is what we would want others to do for us.  Whatever the reasons, whatever the complex political or social background, it does not matter!  There is one thing we need to remember, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  We are all responsible for what happens in Syria because we are all responsible for our own decisions.  What happens after is a different question.  Oppose evil and protect the weak, then we will have earned the right to make judgements, not before.

Sounds like a plan, what specifics do you want to see happen here?
Do you know which side actually released the toxins, and how would you go about sorting this out......? 

[Bill_the_Bear]

Sounds like a plan, what specifics do you want to see happen here?
Do you know which side actually released the toxins, and how would you go about sorting this out......?

My argument is simply against the excuses given for doing nothing.  What should be done is a different discussion which no one here is qualified to be involved in... or if they are qualified they won't be able to make that known.

Deciding if the right thing to do is act or stand by has (IMO) nothing to do with what should be done or how it should be done or what the outcome is.  I see it as a problem of morals.  However, I fully accept that people will argue the exact opposite and base their opinions of what should be done on things like what can be achieved and risks and so forth.  I respectfully disagree that this is the right approach.

Presumably these people would, when responding to an earlier question about a woman being raped, decide to continue quietly into the night and leave her to her fate as its too much of a risk to intervene, they are not equipped to do so and the outcome is uncertain.  We all accept that is clearly wrong.  I believe the same logic applies here, others may not.

I rambled.  What I'm saying is you decide if you should act or not... then you decide what action you should take and how.  Not the other way round.

The situation is obviously complex and there is no "solution" I could propose here or anyone else could propose that could not be knocked full of holes and risks in 5 minutes flat... and that includes the "solution" of staying out of it.  In my opinion, pointing out that any and all solutions are difficult is not a valid argument for doing nothing, not least as doing nothing also has risks.  I see it merely as a way of shutting down the proposals for action and achieving the default position of "talk but don't act" without that position being arrived at by a logical decision process.

So let me turn your question around.  What specifics would you like to see and how will you achieve them?  I don't think anyone proposing inaction has an easier time answering this than anyone proposing action.

Anyway if you want a specific how about a cruise missile landing in Mr Assad's lap?  Not being privy to the security council's briefings I don't know if this is achievable or what outcome may result... but neither do we know what would happen if we do not do it since none of us here are privy to said breifings.  Personally I'd preface this with a nuke or two on the Kremlin believing that its better to treat the cause rather than the symptoms, but that's a topic for a different discussion.

[clipperjay]

Like you said its not black and white I'm assuming the right or maybe not right people or even more qualified people are doing something about it.
If you decided to send troops in or send missiles. One: its political suicide ( how are you going to explain more young soldiers dying once again) Two: collateral damage i.e more innocent deaths (bombing from afar)
My point is inaction or action can yield both negative and positives depends how you want history to remember you by? 
I think from an internal stand point the people responsible will eventually come out when the case is built/investigated.
I say this without emotion because its all I can hope for. 
 

[Bill_the_Bear]

Yes all anyone can really.

Not black and white refers to the results though rather than the decision (to my mind).

[danny_p]

some contry  in the  middel east  has for the most part of recorded history been at war with another or itself.
problem is the longer you try and stop them fighting the more of them there are when it dose kick off.

also there is sientific proof the eath is overpopulated so i say leave them all to it and thin themselves out

[gazareth]

totally agree. no one ever wins a war. if you defeat the enemy then another 1 will appear. there is no long term solution to them conflicts caused by psychopaths over that way. why send troops out there like lambs to the slaughter when at the end off the day them people that are hell bent on destruction will carry on regardless. they have no fear. they are not scared of dying so nothing will put them off. would Syria help us??? who knows. maybe, maybe not. it is none off our business. we cant play god.