"If only Syria would restrict its security forces to using tear gas and water. It would not be such a crime to supply such things"

You prefer them to use live rounds on the demonstrators do you Jim?
Are you some kind of monster?!

Non-lethal crowd control equipment does not crush protest.
That is why Gaddafi, Hamas and Assad use old fashioned bullets on protesters.
Bullets kill and discourage, and the hospitals can be trawled for survivors.
Tear gas disperses one protest but changes no minds in favour of the government and they all live to continue the work.
The protest gets global coverage and grows and spreads.