(BEIRUT) — A U.N. investigation concluded Monday that Syrian forces committed crimes against humanity by killing and torturing hundreds of children, including a 2-year-old girl reportedly shot to death so she wouldn’t grow up to be a demonstrator.

The inquiry added to mounting international pressure on President Bashar Assad, a day after the Arab League approved sweeping sanctions to push his embattled regime to end the violence. Syria’s foreign minister called the Arab move “a declaration of economic war” and warned of retaliation.

The report by a U.N. Human Rights Council panel found that at least 256 children were killed by government forces between mid-March and early November, some of them tortured to death.

via UN: Syrian Forces Killed 256 Children – TIME.

We would be as right to stop this as we were to stop Quadaffi [sp].  Unfortunately, because that actually worked out very well for the U.S. in the real world, but not in crazy-media land, there’s pretty much no public support for doing anything in this situation other than hand wringing/waving.   And of course the sanctions (just as an FYI, Obama, as per, has been on top of this and we’ve been waginge “economic warfare” against Syria since April).

The Arab League has stepped up (again). This time further than before.

BEIRUT — In an unprecedented move against an Arab nation, the Arab League on Sunday approved economic sanctions on Syria to pressure Damascus to end its deadly suppression of an 8-month-old uprising against President Bashar Assad.

But even as world leaders abandon Assad, the regime has refused to ease a military assault on dissent that already has killed more than 3,500 people. On Sunday, Damascus slammed the sanctions as a betrayal of Arab solidarity and insisted a foreign conspiracy was behind the revolt, all but assuring more bloodshed will follow.

The sanctions are among the clearest signs yet of the isolation Syria is suffering because of the crackdown. Damascus has long boasted of being a powerhouse of Arab nationalism, but Assad has been abandoned by some of his closest allies and now his Arab neighbors. The growing movement against his regime could transform some of the most enduring alliances in the Middle East and beyond.

I’m not sure if we’re at an endgame on this yet, and curiously I actually trust my President to do the right thing…whatever that turns out to be.

Either way, this seriously puts a damper on Iran’s celebration re: Iraq, as their one remaining regional ally is eating itself.