A friend has a subscription to the current version of Gary Brecher's War Nerd feature, which is normally behind a paywall. Knowing I'm a fan, he unlocked these two recent columns on the Syrian situation for me, so read 'em while they're hot, if you're interested (they have about 1 day and 16 hours left as of this posting):
Kerry's Chem Speech: Old-School EmpireLittle Kerry and the Three Bad OptionsEDIT:
Now that those columns have had a bit of time to percolate, I think there are two points where Brecher misses something.
The first is that when he's talking about major powers turning a blind eye to massacres committed with conventional weapons, I think that an important cushion there is the slow speed of escalation in Syria. This looked extremely small scale at first and there were several times when most observers thought Assad would snuff the uprisings out completely, much as his father had done several times. Few world powers were about to get involved when the casualties were only measured in dozens or hundreds. Now that the Syrian army has gradually worked it way up to thousands, global news readers have had time to build their mental insulation.
That's not the whole story (I actually posted earlier in this thread about how the US and Europe would have left Assad alone if he'd avoided using taboo weapons), but it figures in there. And I think that carries possibly as much weight as the weapon-technology taboo.
The second is that I think he's off when he talks about the 99% vs the 1% outrage. I think he's largely right that the majority is not going to give two shits about another tribe, but the percentage is not THAT badly off (maybe it's 10%, maybe even more). I also think that the internet has changed the game a little as manufactured outrage and moral offence is propagated faster and wider than ever before - and he's even touched on that himself in older columns. Point being that while "let 'em kill each other" will still usually win, that minority can drive action more often than he's giving it credit for at the moment.
I mean, I largely agree with his particular stripe of cynicism, but I think once in a while he lets it drown some fringe points - even ones he's previously made himself.