1. Global Times Once again, Washington has effortlessly beaten down Russian President Vladimir Putin in the arena of public opinion. Media from the US and Europe have chimed in with official accounts from the US and France, claiming that it was Syrian government troops who used chemical weapons. It should be noted that the so-called evidence presented by the US and France is too ambiguous and insufficient to convict Syria of crimes, and military strikes on Syria will very likely cause many casualties. Even if it turns out that chemical weapons were not used by Syrian government troops, the US knows it won't be held to account for launching such a misguided war, as it did in Iraq. Beijing
2. The New York Times The divided 10-7 vote on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee authorising a strike against Syria for the use of chemical weapons showed there is no strong consensus. The administration is walking a difficult line, trying to persuade Congress and Americans that limited military strikes will be enough to be punitive and effective yet will not pull the United States into another Middle East conflict. One of the biggest unanswered questions is what the United States would do if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons again. The administration is still committed to establishing peace and avoiding a complete collapse of the Syrian state., But it is not clear that there is a strategy to accomplish that. New York
3. The Guardian The civil war in Syria is a tragedy. It is a tragedy for its people, whose lives and homes have been damaged in many cases beyond repair, and for millions of children who have endured terrible events and whose futures are now unimaginably bleak. And in a different way, it is a global tragedy, for much of the world seems indifferent to the suffering, paralysed by its intractability and reluctant to confront the urgent need for action. The bitterly cold Middle East winter is approaching and the UN, as the number of refugees passed the two million mark, declared Syria the 21st century's worst crisis. Yet despite nightly evidence of the truth of observations, pledges of funds seem reluctantly made. London