Syria and U.S. Inaction - NYTimes.com Re "The Enablers" (editorial, Feb. 15): By nearly all accounts, the civilian carnage in Homs by Syrian forces is far worse than anything that Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan dictator, carried out against his people. Colonel Qaddafi, of course, was an international pariah, and the West quickly took action that resulted in his downfall. Despite the horrific scenes we are witnessing in Syria, nothing has been done to stop the mounting civilian bloodshed. The Obama administration is looking impotent at best in bolstering international support for action to stop the carnage and at worst hypocritical in its response to the grave humanitarian crisis facing the Syrian people. When it comes to humanitarian matters, sadly, there seems to be a double standard in American diplomacy. The writer, a college administrator, is a former United Nations official.