The Attack on Syria had been expected as early as Thursday, but appears to be delayed now that signaled it would first await the findings of a United Nations inquiry into the suspected use of chemical weapons in a mass killing near Damascus.

After that, Prime Minister David Cameron would likely hold a parliamentary vote on whether to go ahead with the strike.  The opposition Labor Party and members of his own coalition have fresh memories of the last time around, when the US and UK “just knew” that Saddam Hussein had “weapons of mass destruction” stashed away in Iraq – except that he didn’t, and many lives were lost before then-US President George Bush admitted it.

Labor wants clear proof that the Syrian government had used chemical weapons, along with some sort of approval from the United Nations to put any strike on more solid legal ground.

The Syrian Civil War is now in its third year and has cost 100,000 lives.  But it was the alleged chemical weapons attack on civilians on 21 August that brought the ire of the US, UK, and gulf allies, who blame the regime of Bashar al-Assad.  It’s believed that at least 355 died and well more than a thousand more were sickened.