Changing calculations

摘要

Since the massacre of more than 100 people in Houla on May 25th, talk of setting up buffer zones on Syria's border has grown louder in Western government circles. Reports on June 6th of a similar slaughter of at least 78 villagers near Hama have turned the volume up still more. Hitherto, all Western governments agreed that direct military intervention, which would almost certainly have to accompany the creation of those zones, was out of the question. That is changing.