Viewing Syria from Vietnam

Like many in West I have watched the Arab Spring with fascination, sometime horror and hope. Praying that the turmoil will be proven to have benefited the people. Since I read that Syria has been laying landmines against its own fleeing civilians I have feared that Syria was going to much bloodier then Egypt or even Libya.

Today sitting in a Vietnamese Cafe in Hoi An not far from the site of the DMZ I read this article.
Outrage grows over Syria massacre

I read of the European countries, Arab countries and USA coming together to protest and call for an end to the violence. I imagine that the calls for military intervention will grow. From wisphers at the fringe into the central halls of power. The two big players who stand apart are China and Russia. Sitting in Vietnam that seems an earily similiar political divide.

I can not begin to suggest what should happen next. I feel the UK (and probaly other friends of Syria countries) is tired with war abroad. Tired to see men dying in other lands for reasons we dont usually fully grasp. With little immediate threat (on the scale of what we faced in WW1 &WW2) it is hard for people to grasp why. I know many of the teenagers I work with don't remember not being at war. They don't remember the collective shock on September the 11th when we watched in disbelief as the towers fell.

So tired of watching death being played out on other stages but with some of our actors I understand the desire to be free from war. Yet do we have a responsibilty that goes beyond our borders. Does the very fact that we are not under threat contribute to a moral responsibility to do something.

Yet sitting in this Vietnamese cafe I watch a bike go by not peddled but powerd by the strong arms of an amputee. The numbers are reducing each year but still over 25 years later unexploded amunition and mines claim lives and limbs. The long term impact on Vietnam of Western involvement is impossible to measure. The impact on individuals, families and the collective psyche. Would it have been better to hold back? Would the majority have had a better life?

Now what about Syria. History is moving and maybe it will repeat a familiar story. The political (and economic) lines may be being drawn up as we speak. Yet feeling the touch of Vietnamese history I can not say where (if it even exists) a moral line needs to be drawn.