I AGREE with Harry Reid that a ground invasion of Syria would appear unthinkable, but we should also consider the situation objectively ("It would be a foolish step to put our boots into Syria's war", The Herald, August 27

Modern information technology has armed both the media and Syrian citizens with forms of communication to the extent that we are all aware of the shocking truth that non-combatant men, women and children are being killed or gassed. In the 21st century we cannot be expected to be dispassionate about the details of what is happening.

The main problem with modern technological communication is not, as is often said, that we have information overload, but that we do not have enough of it or in the right places. There seems little or no evidence coming from the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar giving an indication with any certainty where the nerve gas missiles came from, and who was responsible. If Damascus had the number of CCTV cameras we have in UK cities we would be in a better position to challenge Bashar al-Assad with the evidence we need to make an assessment. The challenge for the UN is to prevent future conflict through using substantial, accurate and reliable information from all means as their main armament.

It would seem from the weapons being used that other people have already put their feet into "Syria's war". It seems likely that if the UN takes action then Russia and/or China will show allegiance to Syria in some form. If we are not careful we will concoct the ingredients needed for global escalation.

Although it is easy to point the non-intervention finger of bitter experience at Iraq I feel a better way to jog one's memory is to recall that the UN arrived too late in the mid-1990s to discover the true extent of the Bosnian atrocities.

Bill Brown,

46 Breadie Drive, Milngavie.

WE can all hear the war drums sounding. Vladimir Putin's imperial support of his contemptible ally, Barack Obama's entrapment as chief of the de facto World Police, a crime against humanity requiring international sanctions. There is the impossibility of UN approval for military intervention in the internal affairs of a member state. This time there are no dubious dossiers nor rewritten intelligence reports. David Cameron girds his loins and troops not yet tested in the field wait, as young soldiers do, to test themselves in battle.

Can we spare them the folly of a decade and a century ago? A century ago Scotland fielded something in the region of 250 infantry battalions from her many famous regiments, together with those serving in cavalry, artillery and the supporting services, notably the Royal Army Medical Corps(RAMC). The casualty lists struck every family in the land. A decade or so ago Scotland's then-surviving regiments fielded significant contribution to the war in Iraq and her soldiers are still in Afghanistan. Their casualty lists have affected every community in Scotland.

It is planned to hold Armed Services Day in Stirling next year. Stirling is the historic regimental depot of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, the most junior and one of the most gallant of all the Scottish line infantry, now reduced to a single company as the fifth Battalion of The Royal Regiment of Scotland. That is the reality of our situation and it is time that we made our leaders at Westminster aware of it. Three or four submarines at Faslane do not enable us to police other people's affairs, however repugnant their actions. Moreover, our ownership of these submarines deprives us of the right to claim the moral high ground.

We must not allow this Coalition Government to enter into the kind of folly which led Tony Blair, illegally, to play poodle to George W Bush. Our servicemen and women deserve infinitely better loyalty than that. So also do those who care for them.

KM Campbell,

Bank House,

Doune.

I READ Harry Reid's article with interest. Another interference in a foreign country scares me. After all the protests, Tony Blair went ahead in Iraq. If the British economy improved and something was done about child poverty, we could then take a so-called moral stand.

Bob Dylan got it right in the 1960s with Masters of War when he sang about "you that hide behind desks ... and turn and run farther when the fast bullets fly" and "you play with my world like it's your little toy".

Betty Mitchell,

Cluain Dearg, Clynder, Argyll.

THERE is something I do not understand: the Security Council of the United Nations has members from east and west, presumably so that no side can dominate and that negotiations can be inclusive. How then is it defensible for one side or the other to decide that they don't need the UN when they can't get agreement in the Security Council, as quickly as they want it, for the action they believe to be right?

On the other hand, would I be saying that if I lived in Syria? Or again, if I lived in Russia or China, how would I look on the United States being the world's prefect? Or, more accurately, the world's head boy. I suspect that's the point for me to stop because I'm now having notions of the world needing a head girl to work alongside the head boy - and that surely takes me back to what the UN is meant to be. I hope we give the UN a chance.

Jen Gray,

34 Strathcona Drive, Glasgow.