West Won't Do Another Libya in Syria

If Syria's showdown between the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and his opponents was following the trajectory of Libya's struggle against Muammar Gaddafi, this could be the moment that a U.N. no-fly zone became a matter of urgency. Syrian authorities reported on Monday that armed groups in the town of Jisr al-Shoghour in the north had attacked government buildings with machine guns and hand-grenades, killing 40 security personnel -- a number that quickly climbed to 120 in state TV broadcasts. That claim could not be verified in a situation from which foreign media are excluded, but even if it were a fabrication, it carries the same chilling implication: A Syrian cabinet minister warned that the regime would respond "decisively and with force", and state TV played a clip of a woman purporting to be hiding in a basement in the town from rampant gunmen, who pleaded with the authorities to send aircraft to bomb the town.

Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/06/07/syria-braces-for-a-new-massacre-but-dont-expect-the-west-to-do-another-libya/#ixzz1ObzfmK1z