So Jim-Lad,

As far as your original contention that Syrian civilians were being "slaughtered" by British weapons in Homs, what we have so far is this:

1: Britain has sold no weapons to Syria

2: The licence issued to a private arms dealer in 2009 to sell small arms ammunition (or small arms "arms", as you prefer it) was revoked in good time and there is no evidence that ANY ammunition was ever delivered at all.

3: The vast bulk of those killed in Syria since 6th May 2011 have been killed by shells fired from tanks, artillery, mortar rounds, RPG-7s and small arms predominantly AK-47 Assault Rifles. Most of which are supplied by Russia or China.

As to why the UN is reluctant to act? There can be no UN Security Council Resolution to mandate action as happened in the case of Libya due to Russian and Chinese use of their veto powers.

End result Assad and his regime will collapse, but it will be a long and bloody struggle to finally get what the Syrian people want.