Look, they are Arabs and this is he Middle East.
It is what they do, so bleating about the killing and gassing is quite
irrelevant.
They have been fighting each other over who should have succeeded
Mohammad when he died ever since.
Their genetic problem does not enable them to compromise.
It is a bridge too far for them.

I know it is cruel but perhaps we should should just send them all
back from Europe, place an electronic wall around the Middle East
and let no one in or out.

Being placed in such a dramatic position of compromise or die with
all those immigrants returning may force them to settle on a compromise.
Such a difficult position may cause a mutation of their genome.

Weapons of mass destruction were what Saddam bragged about and he had some germ and chemical weapons so it was not a total lie, anything but!
Assad's Father did the same as his son and the Father's brother tried to usurp Assad Snr back in the 1960's. He fled to London as has lived in luxury ever since. So much for Middle East politics.
Tony Abbott had it spot on "The bad guys against the even worse guys". TA should have ensured we were no part of it and any Australian who went there could never ever come back. Why we allow these filthy scum to infect our country beats me unless it is to make the left feel superior?

I saw Saddam Hussein brag about progress on their nuclear weapon program.
Israel bombed their reactor, so I just do not see how anyone could have
said there were no weapons or how far he had got down the track to a usable weapon.
It was known that they had some centrifuges. It may have not been known
how many they had made.

It was not a gamble anyone wanted to lose.

They killed Hussein because he used gas on his own people. Why would Assad do the same thing? He would have to be stupid to do the same thing. Assad is educated.

Hi JF Aus,

Yes, Saddam murdered thousands of Kurdish women and children using poison gas, back in 1988, and perhaps at other times as well. He was executed for a very wide range of crimes in 2006 by the Iraqi government. Good riddance. But basically, he got away with murdering thousands of people using poison gas, for at least eighteen years.

So Assad has plenty of time to use plenty more poison gas, even if he eventually has to flee Syria. Given the rumours that Putin used poison gas to stop the Moscow Theatre siege (and perhaps at Beslan as well), Assad shouldn't have much trouble, on that score at least, if he seeks asylum in Russia. Birds of a feather ....

As for Putin's venture into the Middle East, he will probably make much use of his Chechen soldiers. But with twenty million Muslims in the North Caucasus, and many millions elsewhere in various 'republics' across Russia, not to mention the central Asian republics, he may find, in this very long war, that he has over-reached, and alienated much of his fiefdom. Given Russia's demographics and economic slump, he may not have much time to defeat a spreading enemy. Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke :)

Joe

Hi Joe,

Innocent until proven guilty is part of democracy.
Many people lay blame as a virtual weapon.

Spread of an enemy as you say, I think that will have devastating outcome if peace is not realized a.s.a.p, more reason why Assad should remain until proven guilty or not.

Natural world food supply from land and oceans is now virtually exhausted, I understand the situation in the world ocean and I think any future world war or civil war worldwide will mean starvation and disease impacting most people.

Mad Max also comes to mind, especially with no oil refinery remaining in Australia.

I think best leave Assad in Syria and concentrate on employment, income, affordable food and peace.