Outsiders have many good reasons for not wading militarily into Syria's steadily bloodier mire. The country is not like Libya: isolated, sparsely inhabited and vulnerable from the air. It contains a much bigger, more densely populated and di- verse population in a tangle of sectarian and tribal knots. Although Syria's ruler, Bashar Assad matches Muammar Qad-dafi in brutality, he has heavier weapons, a bevy of powerful friends abroad and a considerable minority of supporters at home. Any physical involvement, whether military or humanitarian, risks dragging Syria into a prolonged proxy war, as in Iraq a decade ago or Lebanon further back.
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