We cannot still ignore the perils of intervention

"In Syria for instance, the US and its allies have been claiming for three years that the real representatives of the Syrian people are discredited but well-financed exiles who dare not visit either government or rebel-held areas."
I was expecting to want to explain again how we should unpack the word 'intervention', as it is being used by the enemies of the Syrian revolution to make the token threat of airstrikes or the provision of weapons to the Free Syrian Army elide into a rerun of the Iraq invasion, but this prompts me to go: just fuck off. The Syrian opposition leadership suffers from many of the problems of those who don't actually have the power on the ground, but the idea that they are out of touch while Assad has the support of the Syrian people is an insult to those he is bombing.*
Nader Atassi suggested that Assad's re-election slogan should be, Because Syria Won't Barrel Bomb Itself.
Quickly flicking back to Cockburn's piece, I see this, and snigger at his friends on the Left, or what used to be one,
"By accepting as legitimate a government in Kiev installed by direct action, the US and EU irresponsibly destabilised a tract of Europe."
*[http://eaworldview.com/…/syria-daily-regime-barrel-bombs-a…/]