Does the crisis in Syria need international intervention?

HAVING lived in Lattakia and Damascus, I am exasperated by the ignorance displayed by the media when they speak about syria. As the BBC has committed itself to one side of the argument, there is no help there. Outside interests decided they could not bear to leave syria as a beacon of freedom in the Middle East. It is by local standards a liberal country. sunni, Shia, Alawite, Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians, Assyrians and Jews, for example all have freedom to follow their religions. Cathedrals and mosques have congregations who rub shoulders with each other happily. At the beginning of the insurgency, the government was in the process of helping to restore synagogues. Women hold down important posts in both government and the private sector. Everything has a price, and the price of these freedoms is that the law is administered with no messing about, and groups who try to upset the balance in secular and religious life are dealt with severely. The syrian government under Bashar Assad was beginning to make progress in the direction of further liberalisation when the insurgents struck. ‘Push the Christians into Lebanon,’ is one of the calls of the insurgents who would impose their version of an Islamic theocracy on the nation. Yet this is part of the Holy Land: st Paul was at Damascus. Enmity between peoples is not the syrian style, but aided and abetted by the CIA, the warmongering classes cannot bear to leave syria in peace.

ERIC RICHARDS, York. WHEN will we help the Arab countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Jordan? Syria’s ruler is directing tanks against cities in his country. The Jordanian ruler is stripping Palestinians of Jordanian citizenships even though that country is mainly Palestinian. Lebanon has not seen a true internal peace for decades and keeps being taken over by Syrian intelligence and Iranian Hezbollah fighters. The Arab states are failing the nation-state model. The only way they can have some internal stability is to make up outside enemies such as Israel or the U.S. Other countries perpetuate these Arab claims because they need the oil.

EUGEN TARNOW, Fair lawn, New Jersey.