A lot of this seems to be missing the point
I have always had a horror of Chemical weapons - as a small child, when I was taken to visit my grandparents I was frightened by the old man (my step-grandfather) who sat in the corner staring down at the floor in an attempt to hide the still horrific scars of gas burns he had received in the trenches when he was little more than a boy
Having said that, there seems a breathtaking hypocrisy of politicians like Mayfly who send planes to bomb Syria because of their use of chemicals, yet happily sell fighter planes to Saudi Arabia who will use them to slaughter famine-starving Yemeni civilians
Of course - all those who gallantly defend the "decent democratic nations" who allow this to happen, either openly support the selling of "conventional" (whatever that means) weapons to killer states or stay silent when the matter is raised
Creating a league of "permissible" and "forbidden" weapons that are being used on civilians seems to me as grotesque as it gets - almost as grotesque as condemning the Homs massacres yet, on the same thread suggesting "if only we could sell Assad riot-control equipment - all states have the right to defend themselves" - the choice between dying by Assad's sniper bullets or being tortured to death in one of his torture chambers (British equipment such as hand electrical generators (Meggers) were sold to him as well)
Our governments have helped create these wars with their active support for their perpetrators and by our indifference at what they do - and our Governments have facilitated their monstrous behavior with their arms sales - in our name
Protesting about chemical weapons is little more than fine-tuning - the difference between assisting slaughter by a stiletto or being battered to death with a club-hammer
Jim Carroll