the silence here must be weariness from worrying about things beyond ethics and beyond listening to reason.  There is money, power, and patronage at work here that is untouchable.

I'm feeling pretty swamped by our own government right now, and that is nothing compared to Syria.  And yet the masses are cheerfully turning their blind eye.

I agree, Birthstone. It's hard to keep up with the plot. 

I do find, though without having embarked on Grame's deeper examination, that there are all sorts of disconnects in the news and thinking on Syria. But there are some strong conclusions being drawn by the big league powers.

The World that we're seeing has become a pretty ugly place — Canada, yes too, in its own way — but there IS a wider world we're not getting wholly bad vibes from.

The rule of money — and the love of money —  has a lot to answer for. Greed is proving incredibly toxic and destructive. But, as you say, few here seem concerned.

It seems they want Russia to get out of the way before they do.

Did you also see the UN report that says Canad has been complcit in torture. Canada can ignore international l;aws and treaties along with others without any consequences. The only people that can attempt to hold our officials accountable are Canadians.   It's been depressing that outside of the Maple Spring movement there is so little talks about our role in the world.

The complicity of Canada in torture has been known for at least five years - but not in our news media. indeed, Our history of torture goes back at least as far as the Beor War. The American torture of waterboarding was used at least as early as the Spanish-American war. With the UK, it goes back even further.

Canada was also notrious in world War 1 for its treatment of prisoners.

the world is changing too fast :3

and Syria used to be such a nice place to be -- I heard that there was a time when women could walk alone at night and not worry aboot being raped or mugged, and we can't say that aboot the US

I suspect Obama is quite scared about what could happen in that region - no matter who wins in Syria. But he has allowed himself to be tied to Isaeli foreign policy as much as bush did.

the big question now is who will end up with Syria's chemical weapons.

maybe that could be something some of us netizens could do, get together and buy Syria's chemical weapons? :3