[ClearCase_guy]

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday demanded an immediate end to the "dangerous intensification" of violence across Syria and called on all countries with influence to urge the parties "to pull back from the brink."

I am reminded of King Canute going down to the seashore to demand that the waves stop coming in. This episode is often misinterpreted -- Canute did not have delusions of grandeur: he was demonstrating to toadies that he was not all-powerful and he knew it.

If the UN wants to demonstrate just how utterly ineffective they are, then I think they are handling the situation in Syria quite perfectly.

[Lexinom]

Love it, both the historical anecdote and the analogue to the U.N.