These videos at NYTimes’ The Lede are heart breaking. It’s really tragic what’s happening in Syria and so wrenchingly complicated from a diplomatic perspective. We need to help them. But can we without entering into an all out war with Syria’s allies?

From Reuters today: “I fear that the appalling brutality we are witnessing in Homs, with heavy weapons firing into civilian neighborhoods, is a grim harbinger of things to come,” U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said after briefing the Security Council in New York on Wednesday.