The situation in Syria has been volatile for several months, with fighting between government forces and opponents. Numerous atrocities have occurred, with the latest being a massacre of 108 people including at least 32 children, who seem to have been executed in cold blood. At what stage should the international community intervene? The US has now started lobbying the United Nations for some sort of action.
As recent events have indicated, foreign interventions rarely end well. The US-led intervention in Iraq dragged on for many years, and the Afghanistan intervention is still going. Egypt had its Arab Spring without much foreign intervention, but the country’s future remains uncertain. In Libya there was foreign intervention to support the rebels, but it is still yet to be determined whether the new regime will be any better than the old.
The insecurity in Syria is complicated by the involvement of al Qaeda operatives who are using suicide bombing tactics to add to the chaos, with the aim of overthrowing the government in pursuit of their own nefarious objectives. At the moment UN action is being delayed by Russia, which has historically been an ally of Syria, and which has continuing economic interests tied up with the current regime.