Tsunami of fake outrage greets veto of Syria resolution at UN

It wasn't just John Baird who blew a gasket.

Hillary herself weighed in with "to block this resolution is to bear responsibility for the horrors on the ground."

US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice claimed she was actually disgusted.

France's ambassador to the UN vowed that history would judge Russia and China harshly.

And Syrian National Council chief Burhan Ghalioun claimed that the veto gave President Assad a "license to kill."

The US/NATO bloc has two problems here.

Firstly, while they can bemoan the veto all they want, they are a long way from wanting to do anything at this particular time. Syria is only important insofar as it is a front in the war on Iran. Had this resolution passed the pressure to act would have increased exponentially.

We have no appetite to act because unlike Libya, there are good reasons to believe that Syria is capable of defending herself. Syrian military technology is certainly no match for the latest US stuff, but it is several generations ahead of anything Libya had. We can't bomb Syria for nine months with impunity.

Secondly, after seeing what a fiasco post-Gadaffi Libya has become, it behooves the war cheer-leaders to have a good look at the Syrian National Council.

Burhan Ghalioun is a French academic who pals around with Bernard-Henri Levi, the architect of the Libyan intervention. The SNC claims to be all about establishing a true representative democracy in Syria. It also proposes to "normalize" relations with Israel, sever ties with Iran, and cut  off all support for Hamas and Hezbollah.

And here's the rub; no Arab country can have both a democracy and normalized relations with Israel at the same time. Not unless there is an Israeli Spring that sweeps away the settlements, the occupation, and the Likud government and everything to the right of them.

And the chances of that happening are zero.

So you have this pie-in-the-sky outfit that promises Syria democracy if only the US/NATO bloc would intervene and expedite a regime change, but they make promises that are simply unattainable. The only possible result would be another Libya - anarchy for the next generation or two, or until another strongman emerges.

So while the outrage was universal in the Western capitals, behind closed doors all those Defense Ministers and Foreign Secretaries were breathing big sighs of relief.