Thoughts (of very little worth) On Syria

I'm sitting in a courtyard on the University of Newcastle's main campus. It's a gorgeous day, unseasonably warm. This early, there are few students in the deck chairs and lounges strewn about the place. The sun is streaming through the trees that ring the campus. It's about as peaceful a scene as one could imagine, and I'm feeling pretty peaceful too; I've got a lecture on I'm looking forward to, then off to buy party supplies for BabyG's birthday; he's turning two, and presumably will need to be known as BoyG soon.

Then, idly following links, I see this video from the BBC of the aftermath of an incendiary bombing in Syria, and nothing is peaceful at all.

I've been against Western military intervention in Syria. I couldn't see how bombing Syria could not add to the misery of its citizens, who have misery enough to bear. But you know what else they don't need? The opinions of a Western bleeding heart do-gooder who thinks she knows better than them what they should have.

The Syrian people are begging for help. They say the world has forgotten them. We have not forgotten, but if we stand idly by we may as well have. Growing up I always wondered, if the world knew the "killing fields" of Cambodia were happening, why did no one stop it? But then there was the genocide in Rwanda; the world watched and did nothing. Now it is happening again. We have to act, get rid of that asshole Asad, string him up by his testicles, yes I'm against the death penalty but he is targeting schools in bombing raids ferchrissake. The horror of chemical weapons is one thing, but the kids he's killing with conventional bombs dropped on their schools are just as dead. We need to listen to Syria now.

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