The question Syria asks us: what sort of country are we? Even so, those around Cameron are at pains to make clear that the response will be "methodical" and "calm." One of the legacies of the Iraq war had been the bureaucratisation of conflict: there are many chitties to be stamped and forms to be filled in before anything much can happen. As Hague said on Friday, the chances that the attack was orchestrated by the rebels are "vanishingly small." But the allegation must be investigated and evidence to the contrary provided. This weekend, therefore, the priority is to get the UN inspection team to the site of the attack to collect as much evidence as possible - a race against time, as in any forensic exercise. Assad's refusal to let the team do its work is eloquent enough. But the inspectors must exhaust all the options available to them before the international community will countenance an escalation; the collective sense that Hans Blix and his team in Iraq were not given enough time in 2003 still lingers. Meanwhile, discreet preparations are being made for a UN Security Council resolution that, if passed, would transform the parameters of the conflict. I am told that the wording to be recommended by the UK is much tougher than any previous warning to Assad. If this muscular draft comes before the Security Council, it will face stern opposition and may be amended into vacuity. But there is a determination at the top of the Government to give it a try - to which end, there is a powerful diplomatic push this weekend to prepare the ground at the UN for the moment of decision. As I have noted before, Cameron likes President Obama and enjoys their visible affinity, but is frequently frustrated by the Commander-in-Chief's indecision and tendency to cerebrate rather than to command. It is more than a year since Obama warned that the use of chemical weapons was a "red line" and that Assad could expect "enormous consequences" if he crossed it. Such threats should not be made lightly by any American president. It is not only the Syrian dictator who is waiting to see what, if anything, those "consequences" will be. In Tehran, Pyongyang, Cairo, and al-Qaeda's strongholds in Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere, they are watching, too. On both sides of the Atlantic, the military is against intervention. But as Senator John McCain (who knows as much as any US politician about warfare) has said, there are still a range of military responses that deserve consideration - an attack on Assad's runways and aircraft, a no-fly zone supported by Patriot missiles at the border, and the deployment of "stand-off weapons" (so-called because their sheer range means there is no practical risk of retaliation). On Friday, Chuck Hagel, the US Defence Secretary, made clear that he was providing the President with a range of "options for contingencies" and shifting American forces accordingly to prepare for all eventualities. Cameron's task is formidable - perhaps unachievable. In partnership with the French, he must persuade Obama to act; and, at the same time, convince Putin that such action is not a threat to Russia's interests in the region. He must also overcome strong resistance in his own parliamentary tribe, which has tended to dismiss the PM's preoccupation with Syria as yet another distraction from the main economic task (there are honourable exceptions, such as Brooks Newmark, the MP for Braintree). There are no votes in foreign interventions. This is where statesmanship and electoral politics diverge. The Syrian conflict holds a mirror up to Britain and asks us what sort of nation we want to be. The PM came to office scorning neocons like George Osborne and Michael Gove, but - unexpectedly - has become a believer in selective foreign intervention. In this case, the humanitarian argument is horribly clear. But so, too, is the geostrategic case. The West cannot afford to stand by as an oil-rich nation like Syria, fizzing with WMD, falls to pieces. Which is not to say that action against Assad would be easy, risk-free, or guaranteed to succeed, especially as it has been left so late. It is the worst possible option - apart from all the others.