Britain sold nerve gas to Syrian government 10 months AFTER uprising began

The Daily Record's Sunday Mail reports that Britain allowed British companies to sell nerve gas to Syria ten months after the Syrian uprising began.

Export licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride were
granted months after the bloody civil war in the Middle East began.

The
chemical is capable of being used to make weapons such as sarin,
thought to be the nerve gas used in the

British intelligence caught Syrian commanders telling captain 'fire chemicals or be shot'

Part of the evidence that the West has that the Assad regime carried out chemical weapons attacks against his people is conversations overheard by RAF eavesdropping in which a Syrian army captain was ordered by senior commanders to fire chemicals at civilians or be shot.
In one heated exchange, a regional commander was
overheard demanding the captain of an artillery battery in a

Britain's Labour party blasted for Syria stance

British Labour party leader Ed Miliband is coming in for some sharp criticism within his own party for his handling of the vote in parliament last week not to participate in a US attack on Syria (Hat Tip: Gary P).


MPs have privately begun to voice concerns that their leader made a
catastrophic mistake by engineering the defeat of the Government’s motion in
the House of Commons on

From Munich 1938 to Damascus 2013, nothing has changed

Iran isn't the only country watching the West doddle on Syria. So is Israel. Britain's backing out of a Syria strike, and Hussein Obama's obvious hesitation to do the job are going to encourage an Israeli attack on Iran.

But the Iranians are not the only ones watching.  So is Israel. 
Whether or not Israel decides to act against Iran could be determined in
large part by how the world acts

A strike against Syria won't be a one-off and it won't be surgical

Unlike Israeli strikes against Syria like the one above, which was a one-time surgical strike. Eliot Cohen writes that an American strike against Syria will not be over in a day or two and will not be surgical. On the other hand, for the US not to strike Syria now would erode whatever prestige the US has left in the Middle East (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

The temptation here is to follow the

Cameron pressing Obama to hit Syria this week

British Prime Minister David Cameron is pushing President Obama to take action against Syria this week.

British government sources said talks between Western leaders were
ongoing and that any agreed upon military action could be exercised in
the coming week. 

Cameron and Obama were due to speak on Monday or Tuesday in a continuation of talks held on Saturday between the two about the

US official: Syria destroyed evidence but little doubt of chem weapons attack

An American official has told the Jerusalem Post that Syria has destroyed evidence of a chemical weapons attack outside Damascus last Wednesday, but the United States has little doubt that the attack took place.

“If the Syrian government had nothing to hide and wanted to prove to
the world that it had not used chemical weapons in this incident, it
would have ceased its attacks on the area