It's also possible that they didn't tell people here how many Iraqi refugees fled to Syria since T. Blair's intervention, possibly a million people or more, cared for by Syria.
And yet the Government explains away how important it is to hammer Syria.
"Syria has offered Iraqi refugees care and assistance, and continues to do so, in spite of the limited nature of its material resources. At the start of 2007 UNHCR estimated that the number of Iraqi refugees in Syria exceeded 1.2 million, a huge influx to a country with a population of 18 million. This heavy number of arrivals has had an extreme effect on all facets of life in Syria, particularly on the services which the state offers to citizens. There has been a sharp increase in the cost of living and the unexpected weight of numbers has had dramatic impacts on the infrastructure and the economy."
http://www.fmreview.org/FMRpdfs/Iraq/08.pdf