SYRIA CRISIS DEEPENS – AT 11:25 A.M. ET:  The situation in Syria has become horrible, but the only response of the "international community" is condemnation, which isn't cutting it with the Syrian dictator.  From the Jerusalem Post:

The UK on Saturday urged British nationals to leave Syria immediately as violence continued between government forces and anti-regime protesters, the Guardian reported.

The British Foreign Office said UK citizens in Syria should leave by commercial flight while that was still a possibility because the embassy could not likely help if the situation continued to deteriorate. The statement added that evacuation options would be limited going forward.

The British announcement came as Syrian troops and gunmen loyal to President Bashar Assad stormed a town near the Turkish border, burning houses and arresting 70 people, witnesses said, in a wide-ranging military assault to crush a three month uprising.

"They came at 7 a.m. to Bdama. I counted nine tanks, 10 armoured carriers, 20 jeeps and 10 buses. I saw shabbiha (gunmen) setting fire to two houses," said Saria Hammouda, a lawyer from the small town of Bdama.

The town lies 2 km from the Turkish border, in Jisr al-Shughour region, from where thousands of people have fled to Turkey following military assaults to quell dissent against 41 years of Assad family rule

In Lebanon, the Lebanese army clamped down on two sectarian districts of a northern city on Saturday after a rally in support of anti-government protesters in Syria triggered deadly clashes between rival gunmen.

Lebanon is under the thumb of Syria. 

19 Syrians died on Friday when Syrian government forces fired at demonstrators demanding the removal of President Bashar Assad in the biggest protest since unrest against Baathist rule erupted in March, activists said.

European powers, which had initiated a detente with Assad prior to the street protests to try to draw the Syrian leader away from Iran and also stabilize Lebanon, said Damascus should face tougher sanctions for the violence.

Yeah, right.  Just as sanctions have worked against Iran. 

This is getting worse.  Obama seems as detached as usual.  There is a good chance that Assad will survive this, just as his father survived after ordering a wholesale slaughter in the Syrian city of Hama in 1982.  Most of the world is usually interested only in who wins.

Our influence, ever since Obama took office and started appeasing the Arab world, seems less than ever.

June 18, 2011