Que?

Well, you can usually feel a bullet penetrating your flesh, a large piece of metal is required to spit them at you, and those are usually loud as fuck. Chemicals are rarely heard or seen, so that's already two ways it's nearly undetectable. Usually you can only feel a chemical attack after you're already pretty much fucked, and if used in crowded areas, like the one in the OP seemingly was, you have a recipe for a silent disaster.

I also kind of can't believe you asked such a dumb question.

I do understand the practical differences of properties and usages of bullets, explosives and chemicals. My point is, is the crisis somehow worse now, after they switched guns to chemicals? (Well, I don't think anyone other than the dead have dropped their guns, but ya know)

It's pretty clear the whole place is a killing field, and a poisoned human is just as dead as one dismembered in an explosion. Lives don't seem to be a very valued thing around there, which is imo a bigger problem than how exactly people are massacred.

The point is that bullets and even to some degree bombs are precision weapons where it is possible and even plausible not to harm civilians, whereas chemical weapons are inherently imprecise and thus explicitly for the purpose of indiscriminate killing. You cannot limit civilian casualties with chemical or biological weapons. You can't even pretend to be trying to comply with international laws of war when using them.

I agree that a dead innocent is a dead innocent but this attack shows the depths of depravity that the Assad regime are willing to go to quell this uprising.

Also bullets aren't banned, explosives aren't banned(conventional ones anyway) but chemical weapons sure as hell are banned.

Depends on the compound, some of the neurotoxins can kill you fairly quickly(never instantly, seconds maybe) but a lot of neurotoxins can take hours, days even. Lead poisoning in lethal amounts can take a while to kill you. Not to mention the residual affects of a chemical attack, poisoning groundwater for months even years to come. People who didn't get enough to kill them but just enough to fuck them up severely.

Apparently sarin does this to you:

"Initial symptoms following exposure to sarin are a runny nose, tightness in the chest and constriction of the pupils. Soon after, the victim has difficulty breathing and experiences nausea and drooling. As the victim continues to lose control of bodily functions, the victim vomits, defecates and urinates. This phase is followed by twitching and jerking. Ultimately, the victim becomes comatose and suffocates in a series of convulsive spasms."

Doesn't really sound like immediate killing to me.

You may be thinking about stuff like mustard gas, which is a blistering agent, or phosgene, and actually left troops from the WWI disabled up until the 70's or so. They are not nerve agents, but rely on actually damaging tissue, especially in the lungs, and do visible damage. Unlike nerve gases, that only have one visible effect, as in leaving people visibly dead.

There is no question that Doctors without Borders (MSF) has emerged as a political arm of US foreign policy during the Syrian crisis. And i am not talking about whether chemical weapons was used or who used it (personally, both war criminal sides of the conflict in Syria are capable of the worst atrocities and lies) but I am talking about the unprecedented statement by MSF: this organization never took such a stance before and on accounts people and without investigation. This never to my knowledge happened with the organization before. Do you think that MSF would ever make a similar statement about Israeli massacres? When it comes to Israel, Western relief organizations hide behind the refrain: we are not political organization and we only do our work. But in Syria, there seems to be different standards applied. You think we are not noticing?

I don't know what happened, but I'm inclined to think that the opposition's story isn't true. They've been caught in big lies before, the timing and location is suspicious, they've staged massacres, and they've used chemical weapons themselves (chlorine). I will continue to reserve judgement.

These genetic liars are so desperate to bomb the Assad regime into history because the global plan to subvert and conquer the Middle and Near East has had its timetable scuppered by the Syrian government refusing to fall in the wake of a civil war orchestrated through psychopathic mercenaries by the hidden forces behind NATO and Israel that are now planning to bomb Syria via their political puppets who dare not refuse to take orders - not that this lot need much encouragement.

They are planning to kill and maim still more people with brown faces on the way to controlling the whole of the vast region known as Eurasia and the plan was for them to have invaded Lebanon and Iran by now so they are seeking to bomb away the blockage and stalemate in Syria where the NATO armed-and-funded 'rebels' have been losing ground to the Assad military.

To do so, they are claiming with no evidence that Assad ordered a chemical attack on his own people. They have tried this before without success when it became clear that the alleged 'Assad' chemical attacks were instigated by the very 'rebels' that NATO controls to manufacture an excuse for NATO to invade.

Now, in pathetic desperation, they are doing the same again and this time refusing to take no for an answer or produce any credible evidence (they can't) because their masters' timetable demands that Assad be removed now – just as it did with Gaddafi in Libya.

And the global corporate media is playing its usual part in repeating the lies as fact and in doing so the blood will be on their hands, too, as it has been throughout corporate media history and yet they are so stupid, so uninformed, so moronic, that they can't see that they and their families are going to be subject to the same Orwellian fascist society that they are providing the daily propaganda to justify - David Icke.

David Vaughan Icke (/aɪk/; IKE, born 29 April 1952) is an English writer, public speaker and former professional footballer. He promotes conspiracy theories about global politics and has written extensively about them.

Icke was a BBC television sports presenter and spokesman for the Green Party, when in 1990 a psychic told him that he was a healer who had been placed on Earth for a purpose, and that the spirit world was going to pass messages to him. In March 1991 he held a press conference to announce that he was a "Son of the Godhead" – a phrase he said later the media had misunderstood – and the following month told the BBC's Terry Wogan show that the world would soon be devastated by tidal waves and earthquakes. He said the show changed his life, turning him from a respected household name into someone who was laughed at whenever he appeared in public.[1]

He continued nevertheless to develop his ideas, and in four books published over seven years – The Robots' Rebellion (1994), And the Truth Shall Set You Free (1995), The Biggest Secret (1999), and Children of the Matrix (2001) – set out a worldview that combined New-Age spiritualism with a denunciation of totalitarian trends in the modern world. At the heart of his theories lies the idea that a secret group of reptilian humanoids called the Babylonian Brotherhood controls humanity, and that many prominent figures are reptilian.

Quite hard to take him seriously...

I don't know what happened, but I'm inclined to think that the opposition's story isn't true. They've been caught in big lies before, the timing and location is suspicious, they've staged massacres, and they've used chemical weapons themselves (chlorine). I will continue to reserve judgement.

Saudi intelligence has issued a tacit threat to have terrorist attacks carried out in Russia at the Winter Olympics in February 2014, should the state continue to support the Assad regime in Syria.

The threat was revealed in leaked transcripts of a closed-door meeting three weeks ago between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

It appears that following initial vocal concerns expressed by Gulf state diplomats and senior leaders of the Syrian opposition, the leaked material was provided to the Russian media. More details then emerged in the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir, which is sympathetic to Hezbollah and thus extremely inhospitable toward Saudi Arabia.

The respected middle east news agency Al Monitor carries a translated version of the As-Safir report which suggests that during the talks, Bandar, who heads the primary Saudi intelligence agency, allegedly presented a cornucopia of offers and threats with regards to Syria.

In return for Russia’s cooperation, Bandar is alleged to have promised to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria should Assad be forced from power.

Perhaps the most interesting snippet in the report, has Bandar suggesting that should Russia elect not to reach an agreement over Syria, Chechen terrorist attacks may be carried out on the Russian hosted Winter Olympics next year in Sochi.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year.” Bandar is alleged to have said. What makes the pledge threatening is that he is also quoted as saying “The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us.”

Bandar also allegedly stated that Chechen terrorists currently in Syria were a tool that could be used at will.

“The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory’s direction without coordinating with us.” Bandar is quoted as saying. “These groups do not scare us. We use them in the face of the Syrian regime but they will have no role or influence in Syria’s political future.” he added.

Bandar also allegedly said that he was speaking with the full backing of the US government.

The London Telegraph also reported on the leaked notes, noting the Saudi prince’s attempt to further sweeten Putin with a secret sweeping oil deal and a pledge to safeguard Russia’s gas contracts should he abandon support for the Assad government.

The deal appears to be in the form of an offer to form a Russian/OPEC alliance on oil production that would significantly affect global markets. While Syria is not a major oil producer, any military action taken against the country could have wider repercussions on oil markets.

Vladimir Putin is said to have responded “We know that you have supported the Chechen terrorist groups for a decade. And that support, which you have frankly talked about just now, is completely incompatible with the common objectives of fighting global terrorism that you mentioned. We are interested in developing friendly relations according to clear and strong principles.”

The Russian president is also said to have commented “Our stance on Assad will never change. We believe that the Syrian regime is the best speaker on behalf of the Syrian people, and not those liver eaters.” referring to the rebels.

Bandar is said to have responded that there would be “no escape from the military option” if Russia were to decline the Saudi terms for accord.

The leaked transcripts do dovetail with initial reports that sourced anonymous European and Arab diplomats.

It is possible that the leaked transcripts could be embellished by Russian intelligence, for propaganda purposes. However, the detail contained within them makes them appear authentic. Regardless, the report makes for compelling reading, particularly considering Saudi Arabia’s eagerness to take decisive action to overthrow and remove the Syrian government permanently.

EDIT: and I didn't see this till just now, but the British Parliament shot down Cameron's request for military action and the White House is hinting they might do airstrikes alone. Even more

Also keep in mind that a large part of the Syrian population still seems to support Assad because to them the rebels are worse, no matter how despotic he is. Since Al Quaida, Hezbollah and similarly trustworthy groups are involved in the alliance this should hardly surprise anyone. If Assad is overthrown we can probably look forward to a Syria under Sharia law.

What is certain is that the civilian population will lose.