"Syria is the worst humanitarian crisis the world has faced since the end of the cold war."

The above statement comes from the head of the UN's High Commission for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, who was quoted in the following Economist article:

Syria's civil war:  Yet another massacre

In a second Economist article, Chemical weapons in Syria:  Crossing a red line, Israeli and British and French intelligence services have claimed that Bashar al-Assad has already used chemical weapons on his own people on more than one occasion.  The Obama administration has said time and again that the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime would absolutely not be tolerated.

In response to these reports, Barack Obama, has said that if these reports are true it would be a "game-changer", but that American intelligence has not yet confirmed their validity.  (Obama:  proof of Syrian chemical weapons would be 'game-changer'.)

What this means for Syria, for the United States, and for me as a Peace Corps Volunteer living with sight of Syria remains unclear.