Here are some "readings" about the Syria situation.
They vary widely in style and position (Fintan O'Toole's piece about Seamus Heaney is there because of the way Heaney shows that "uncertainty may simply be the human condition") and several of them, including O'Toole's, result from some back-and-forth with John Naughton.
I've highlighted eight that I think are particularly illuminating.
[Last updated 22/9/2013]
Editorial - "Syria: the neglected health crisis deepens" - The Lancet, 31/8/2013
Matthew d'Ancona - "A nauseating, preening and grubby carnival of inaction" - Daily Telegraph, 31/8/2013 l
Uri Avnery - "Poor Obama. I pity him." - Gush Shalom, 31/8/2013
Aaron Bady - "The Sovereign Double-Standard" - The New Inquiry, 31/8/2013
Tony Blair - "Intervention is bloody, standing aside is worse" - The Office of Tony Blair, 1/9/2013
Graham Brown-Martin - "Zaatari Refugee Camp – Jordan" - Learning{RE}imagined, 15/9/2013
Ian Buruma - "Bombing for Morality" - Project Syndicate, 2/9/2013
Sue Cameron - "Lord Guthrie, former Chief of the Defence Staff: Syria would not have been a 'just war'" - The Telegraph, 31/8/2013
Charli Carpenter - "Responsibility to Protect -- Or to Punish: Morality and the Intervention in Syria" - Foreign Affairs, 29/8/2013
Patrick Cockburn - "In Syria, it's a case of all or nothing" - Independent, 1/9/2013
Robert Fisk - "Gas missiles 'were not sold to Syria' - Export papers seem to back Assad's denial over sarin attack – but Russians won't go into detail" - Independent on Sunday, 22/9/2013
David Hayes - "London’s road from Damascus" - Inside Story, 3/9/3013
James Fellows - "William Polk's Syria Reader" - The Atlantic, 2/9/2013
Max Hastings - "A savage defeat for Cameron... and he brought it on himself" - Daily Mail, 30/8/2013
Mark Hosenball - "Direct link between Assad and gas attack elusive for U.S." - Reuters, 7/9/2013
Howard Jacobson - "Twerking pop stars and errant footballers I can give an opinion on. Syria leaves me stumped" - Independent, 30/8/2013
Ian Leslie - "this is water" - Marbury, 31/8/2013
David Lowry - "Is Britain really so against chemical weapons?" - OurKingdom, 7/9/2013
Rob Marchant - "My God, what have I done?" - The Centre Left, 30/8/2012
Barrack Obama - "Statement by the President on Syria" - The White House, 31/8/2013 (video available here)
Anthony Painter - "Yesterday was Parliament's nadir" - LabourList, 30/8/2013
Vladimir Putin - "A Plea for Caution From Russia" - New York Times, 11/9/2013
John Rentoul - "David Cameron's unlikely victory from defeat" - Independent 1/9/2013
Steve Richards - "For a fragile leader like Cameron, the past can be a treacherous guide" - Guardian, 30/8/2013
Andrew Sullivan - "Saving Obama From Himself" - The Dish, 5/9/2013
Fintan O'Toole - "Comfort is best found in Seamus Heaney's poems" - Irish Times, 31/8/2013
Brian Whitaker - "Syria – a chilling hypothesis: has Assad borrowed Saddam's chemical strategy?" - Al Bab, 1/9/2013
Many thanks for the link to Fellows/Polk article on Syria; it gave the precise summary on the overall situation that I needed to get a grasp of what is really going on. GKelly
Posted by: G Kelly | 10/09/2013 at 11:18