Bombs and missiles are ok in Syria, but gas is not ok? WTF!

Last night, even as my eyes were half-closing, and with my right arm tiring quickly holding the New Yorker thanks to the tennis-elbow issue that I am dealing with, I simply had to, had to, finish reading the absolutely depressing narrative on the people in Aleppo burying their dead.

If it was depressing to read, I cannot imagine how awful it was for the reporter to be there.  And even more awful for the Syrians who live in Aleppo.  And way more awful for those whose friends and family are dead. What a terrible situation there!

The entire essay is bloody depressing.  Within that insanity, one of the most insane was this: there is a bridge that divides the rebel area from the regime's.  People use it even as there is fighting all around because, well, they have to keep going with their lives.  And then this happens:

In several places, to evade government snipers, you must run.  Nearly every day, the snipers kill people--but, if you reach the bridge, chances are that the soldiers on the other side will let you in.
The snipers shoot commuters in order to bait rebel fighters and would-be rescuers.  Often, it is women and children who are shot. 

Even Catch-22 didn't include such levels of insanity.

It is now more than two years of fighting.  The UN has registered and processed more than 1.2 million refugees.  As one can imagine, a lot more are internally displaced.

So, when all these are happening, why should the use of gases be some kind of a red line that Assad's government cannot cross?  The 1.2 million refugees don't matter? The 75,000 dead is within our tolerance limits?  The regime's use of aircraft and missiles against its own people is normal?

This artificial notion of gas used against Syrians as some kind of a barometer on whether or not we should act is just bizarre.  Stupid, actually!

It is a long corridor of geopolitical instability from Kashmir all the way to the Mediterranean.  We need to draw a red line around the thousands of miles of this corridor.  And there isn't enough red ink for that!

All I can do in such contexts is rely on the old masters; here is Hemingway in A Farewell to Arms

"There is nothing as bad as war. ... When people realize how bad it is they cannot do anything to stop it because they go crazy.  There are some people who never realize. There are people who are afraid of their officers. It is with them the war is made"

"I know it is bad but we must finish it."

"It doesn't finish.  There is no finish to a war."

"Yes there is."

Passini shook his head.

"War is not won by victory. ... We think. We read. We are not peasants.  We are mechanics.  But even the peasants know better than to believe in a war.  Everybody hates this war."