Murder of innocents/children is, officially at least, as abhorrent to Muslims as it is to the rest of us. They object violently to us involving ourselves in their affairs, as we object to interference in ours. Without oil and not being a major breeding ground for terrorists, Syria has no legitimate interest to us. Morally without doubt, but not under International Law. Read the ICJ terms. The most we can do is try to get them kicked out of the UN, which will fail by Veto.
Assad's dad killed even more 20 odd years ago; we did nothing. Goodbye moral high ground.
Invading Iraq blew The West's legitimacy*, probably for the next 30 years, Thanks George and Tony.
It also killed between 100,000 and 1,000,000 civilians. Our own Lancet puts the war and knock-on violence civilian deaths at over 600,000. Assad has killed around 15,000 by most estimates. "We didn't mean to" doesn't justify 40 times as many violent deaths by us being 'OK'.
The other Arab / Muslim nations have easily enough Armed Forces to depose Assad. They choose not to. End of.
Sorry to be blunt. I don't like it any more than you, but that's the size of it.
* The UN Secretary General said it was illegal in Sep 2004.
Last edited by Fox3WheresMyBanana; 26th May 2012 at 22:18.
Reason: more numbers