Syria

You could easily imagine Messrs. Cameron and Sarkozy licking their lips when violence flared up in Syria. Fortunately they will not be allowed to take military action through the UN because Russia and China are furious at the way they exceeded their UN mandate in Libya, which was for the protection of the people not for the pursuit of Gadaffi.

Whilst the Libyan escapade was given UN approval in part due to the inclusion of the Arab League, with Syria the League has been left on its own. And what a mess it has made. It secured Bashar al-Assad's agreement to stop slaughtering his own people, only for Assad to ignore this the following day. It has tried several times to get some meaningful peace plan together but to no avail: Assad is fighting for his life - and not just his political life - and isn't going to give an inch.

All we can hope for is that sanctions by the West starve the people into desperate measures against their ruler.

A sad business.