Not so long ago, the story of a young refugee found drowned on Europe’s shore was front page news. Now such news is on page 34 (Dozens of refugees drown after boat hits rocks, The world, January 31). It doesn’t take long for tragedy to become the norm.

Syria is a catastrophe, with no end in sight. Those who argued against military action in August 2013 might like to ponder whether a chance was missed to resolve things. At that time, there was a recognisable moderate Syrian opposition and Assad was in retreat. A short, sharp air campaign might have been enough to topple Assad and his brutal regime. The chance wasn’t taken and now we have a fight to the death involving numerous factions, with none strong enough to win outright.

It was Ed Miliband, that nice but naïve and ineffective Labour leader, who pulled the plug on an air campaign that would have involved forces from the US, UK, Europe and the Middle East. And it was Tony Blair, former Labour leader and now reviled by many in the party, who remarked some years ago that doing has consequences, but so does doing nothing. We chose to do nothing in 2013 and the consequences are all too clear. You’d have to be very bold to claim that military intervention in 2013 would have produced a situation worse than we have now.

And where is the UN in all this? AWOL; again.

Doug Maughan

Dunblane