The Syrian gov't has shut the borders. Keep in mind this is the same thing the Hutus did before they attacked the Tutsis. I know people are going to say the West doesn't care about this possibly impending slaughter of innocent protesters because Syria only produces around 500,000 barrels per day, but could there be more reasons than that simple one?
Syrian Forces Open Fire on Protestors, Many Dead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhHS408eJvw&feature=player_embedded#at=190
Syria also has much strong army, anti aircraft defense and borders both Iraq and Israel. Syrians can reignite the insurgents into Iraq forcing US to send in more troops and incurr 10s of Billions of dollars of extra expenses in mere 3-6 months. Why do these stupid protesters go on creating problems. They should sit down with the regime and chalk out a slow and steady reform planning which shows it long term fruits in 5 years and helps the general population in a wide ranging manner. Doing Russia under Yeltsin would be disastrous as it nearly bankrupted Russia. Better do China under Deng Xio Peng or Jian XiMin. Economic and social reforms need 5-10 years to catch roots and then provide benefits in the long run.
So much for US diplomacy and foreign policy. This is serious with Syria disintegrating into civil war. End Times. At least for the ME.
This is why using "humanitarian" and "protecting peaceful democratic protesters" pretexts for intervening can have limitations. What do you do the next time a gov't attacks democratic protesters in the middle east? If you do nothing or just pay lip service it becomes a double standard. It will be seen even worse if people then rationalize that the protesters in the country with lots of oil were saved while those in the country with little oil were allowed to be slaughtered.
Wow. Its a shame this isn't all over the news. Or maybe my news feeds don't have the right focus. That Syria only produces 500,000 barrels a day has so much to do with it. ROI is king. War costs more than potential oil profits.
This is a different topic. We are trying to predict how gov'ts will respond to these situations. Syria is more tricky becuase of the countries they border.
Is Obama sending in the troops to protect civillians like in Libya? Syrian army is using tanks to roll over the protestors.
syria is a close ally with iran. the US can do nothing but sit and watch unless they are ready for WW3, which remains to be seen.