"This should be about the issue of Syria, not me."
Not you Keith - what you say.
Supply Assad with anti-riot equipment
Don't help the Syrians overthrow Assad because of what they might do to Christians and therefore are not to be trusted.
Britain and the US are doing all they can to help - they are not, but they would if Syria had significant supplies of oil.
It was ok to sell Assad small arms ammunition even though he had been long exposed by Amnesty International as a torturing and murdering dictator.....
Your expressed sympathy for the Syrians is a sham - you have offered no suggesttion of a solution to the massacres (except the riot equipment) and have attempted to slap down anybody who has.
You have attempted to silence an overview of the situation - Britain selling despots weapons after the Arab Spring had begun.
You have labeled as 'thread drift' subjects you put in your first posting, attempting to silence discussion on your own statement.
All of which makes your pathetic attempts to label opponents of your one-man campaign "maniacs" or "friends of Assad" the desperate shit that it is. YOU ARE THE ONLY ONE WHO HAS DEFENDED THE SELLING OF MILITARY EQUIPMENT TO BE USED AGAINST THE SYRIAN PEOPLE - AND HAVE EVEN SUGGESTED SUPPLYING EVEN MORE.
Want any more - plenty do choose from?
What do I think of the latest "strengthening of sanctions"?
Sanctions have made not one iota of difference so far - Assad is getting his support from Russia, China and Iran, and will continue to do so until the UN act on their constitutional 'Duty to Protect' clause and stop hiding behind Russia and China as an excuse not to.
An interesting article in The Times yesterday outlining the consequences of non-intervention by Amir Taheri - researcher and author on Middle Eastern affairs:
"The debate is not about the right, but the duty to intervene. Not to intervene would mean repeating the mistakes that caused the death of millions in Rwanda, the Congo and former Yugoslavia.
Turkish and Arab leaders tell me that they would be ready to set up safe havens and humanitarian corridors providing the US stops fooling around with "leading from behind" and takes the lead to set up at least one no-fly zone with help from a coalition of the willing".
Ironically, Israel is (quite justifiably) in a panic over what is happening in Syria.
If the the only military resistance remains in the hands of rebel groups there is a danger that Syria's large stocks of chemical weapons could fall into the hands of Hezbollah - leaving the Middle East...... where exactly?
I utterly condemn Russia's and China's veto - I have from the beginning, but I also condemn those who continue to hide behind that veto in order to do what they have said they would do right from the outset ABSOLUTELY NOTHING PRACTICAL TO STOP ASSAD - FOR CYNICAL POLITICAL REASONS - NO OIL, NO HELP.
Jim Carroll