Gary: the United States should stay out of the conflict.

This is a conflict that the West should stay well away from. The Rebels are the very people we have been waring with over the last 20 years, ifthe West arms them they will turn the weapons on the West as soon as they have a victory in Syria & the West would have supplied those weapons.

Where are all the other Islamic/Arab nations. Why haven’t they stepped up to the mark? I feel it's because if they can get the West to get into another war in the Middle East then they have an excuse to condemn the West as Imperialists.

Jayb you probably are not an imperialist and neither am I. But do not underestimate the fact of American Imperialism.

There are many excellent books in your public library which will provide a deeper insight into the catalogue of American bastardry during the recent past and going back to the Amero-indian genocide.

I'm not suggesting they are the only ones but they have certainly contributed to the murder and poverty of millions of innocent humans across the planet.

Just consider the effects of one cluster bomb dropped on your neigbourhood in response to an issue of which you were completely ignorant.

This is the reality of what has occured in Iraq and Aphganistan in an attempt to convince the inhabitants of the virtues of "democracy"
Good luck
Den 71

DEN71: There are many excellent books in your public library which will provide a deeper insight into the catalogue of American bastardry during the recent past and going back to the Amero-indian genocide.

I'm not suggesting they are the only ones but they have certainly contributed to the murder and poverty of millions of innocent humans across the planet.

Murder is a bit harsh DEN but I get your point. Anytime there is a war people get killed. History supports that. The English Civil Wars, Wars with Scotland where entire villages were killed. It was custom in the Middle East when raising a city to massacre all of the inhabitants. Nothing new here.

In the Middle East now the cry is "innocent civilians were killed" but the truth of the matter is that those innocent civilians were involved in one way or another in the fighting. Once there were two Armys that wore an identifying uniform, now one side wears a uniform the other doesn't & when injured claim that they were innocent civilians. (BS) This, of course, raises the ire of the Sooky Politically Correct who don't really understand what's going on & spend their life crying about everything.

Just consider the effects of one cluster bomb dropped on your neighbourhood in response to an issue of which you were completely ignorant.

Been there, done that, had one dropped on me in Vietnam. As for your statement that they were completely ignorant of the issue. It's about time you woke up to yourself mate. They know what it's all about.

DEN71: This is the reality of what has occurred in Iraq and Afghanistan in an attempt to convince the inhabitants of the virtues of "democracy"

No it was, in the case of Iraq, to overthrow a tyrant who murdered, gassed & tortured his people because they were of a different religious sect to him. Didn't you know that? strange.

In the case of Afghanistan it was at the request of a Government in exile to rescue the people from a terrifying group of fanatical people who were murdering innocent Men, women & children because they had gone to school or didn't support their fanaticism. Then of course there was their supporting element Al Qaida which is another story.

Where are all these innocent civilians getting all their arms & ammunition from? They can't be capturing all that much. They use spray & pray tactics which wastes 99% of their logistics. Notice when one of the rebels gets shot he automatically becomes an innocent civilian caught up in the fighting. Strange that. Good tactics, it works on the sooky PC crowd in the West doesn't it. Seems to have
worked on you, eh.

The opening sentence of this article is a classic illustration of the self-fulfilling prophecy in operation. Several of the western powers, including the US, UK and France, abetted by the Gulf Co-operation council plus Turkey have armed, financed, trained and supported the so-called rebels, creating chaos, destruction and death to Syria's inhabitants.

Those self-same countries then point to the chaos and say that it justifies western intervention. The hypocrisy is staggering. The rebels include fanatical jihadists, among them groups affiliated to al Qaeda who Hilary Clinton has little trouble supporting, just as she did in the overthrow of the sovereign government of Libya. That should come as no real surprise to those who follow the adventures of American imperialism over the years.

What we are seeing in Syria now is the playing out of the plan exposed by Seymour Hersch in the New Yorker several years ago. That plan requires compliant dictators, obedient to US wishes, and incapable of posing any sort of threat to Israel. Syria currently provides an inconvenient block to Israel's plans to attack Iran. Assad therefore has to go.

That the net result of these machinations may well be another world war is apparently of little concern to either the Americans or the Israelis. That Australia should actually be a party to this is depressing. It appears that Labor and the Coalition echo chamber have learnt nothing from the disasters in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya. Now we have yet another article leading the cheer squad for war. Dressing up international aggression and undisguised imperialism as "humanitarian intervention" fools nobody, least of all the victims.

Jayb It was not my intentention to insult your perceptions or you personally. I'm sorry you took my comments that way, I'm sure that your personal experience is perfectly valid and yes there is much more for me to learn but to be fair that probably also applies to you. I though, still stand by my statement that the USA are un-apologetic imperialists, an in-depth study might also bring you to that same conclusion. I agree absolutely that the USA should keep its nose out of Syria.
Cheers DEN71