Probably the only useful thing outside powers can do, would be to engage in serious new diplomacy, in which supporters of both the regime and the armed opposition participate.

Predictably, the usual European warmongering poodles of the William Hague kind have already stepped in, blaming Syria because Turkey violated Syrian airspace.

Barack Obama says: "We stand for principles that include universal rights for all people and just political and economic reform." Except when it comes to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

On 13 June 2012 Hillary Clinton said: "The United States has provided no military support to the opposition. None." So explain what the CIA is doing in Turkey.

Could this incident be used to put pressure on the Russians and to increase calls for western intervention to support the opposition?

Drone strikes are causing more and more Yemenis to hate America and join radical militants; they are not driven by ideology but rather by a sense of revenge and despair.

No one can minimise the barbarity of the Assad regime, nor want to defend it from the justified rage of its people. But no one began the revolution wanting another Libya as the result.

Syria has become the focal point in the Middle East region, as the democratic, anti-imperialist organisations that led the peaceful protest movement initially have been eclipsed by Nato-backed forces.

The current euro crisis might look like a threat to the world as we know it. But it is nothing, absolutely nothing, compared with what could happen if Syria explodes.

The US and its allies are sponsoring regime change through civil war and while paying lip service to the Annan plan, they are making sure it won't succeed.

The United Nations and human rights groups accuse militias of doing what Gaddafi's torturers used to do, with whips, chains and plastic hoses.

The opposition groups calling for Western military intervention in Syria are not different from those in the Iraqi opposition who collaborated with the US and Britain in the Iraq war.

The only way to prevent a full-scale civil war in Syria – which would destroy the country, as happened in Iraq – is to demilitarise the conflict.

At the NATO summit, we can expect more threats to countries which do not comply with the NATO powers' wishes, more determination to continue the failed war in Afghanistan, and more contempt for the lives of those who suffer in wars and the opinions of the majority of people who regularly oppose them.

First the US ambassador to Pakistan resigned over Obama's drone attacks, now ex-CIA counter-terrorism chief says they are forcing Yemenis into violent extremism.

As with any insurgency, the best response, says Jonathan Steele, is not foreign military intervention but to address the injustices and poverty which lie at its root.