It's probably not escaped anyone's notice that last weekend there was a suspected chemical weapons attack in Douma in Syria which hit a lot of people, including (from the videos) children. Normally I wouldn't make a thread about something tragic like that because the potential for discussion is limited and honestly it feels a bit weird to make jokes about.
But this time the West appears to have woken up and decided something has to be done. Following the poisoning of the Skripals in the UK and the united diplomatic pressure on Russia, the international mood seems to have turned against Putin and it seems to have affected their ability to shield Assad from the political consequences of his behaviour. Right now the US, UK and France seem to have become convinced that the attack was a legitimate chemical weapons attack and seem to have resolved to militarily intervene in Syria with the objective of removing Assad's chemical weapons. Russia predictably calls the whole thing a "false flag" operation conducted by "one country's secret service". They have also threatened to act if their personnel are affected by any Western strike.
I'm in two minds about this. On one hand I'm not sure what our endgame or clear objective would be in Syria. Disarming chemical weapons is a great aim, but when it's backed by Russia who clearly don't give a crap about using chemical weapons themselves, why wouldn't they just hand Assad more to use the moment we leave? So do we end up in conflict with Russia over this? Do we topple Assad completely? What then to rebuild a country riddled with militias and regional tensions?