Hours after a horrific massacre in Homs, China and Russia vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria, one which was already watered down in an attempt to get the support of the Russians.

The Syrian regime, trying to walk a fine line between staying in power and avoiding the ire of the international community, abruptly announced a general amnesty for “crimes” committed during the uprising, which began last March. The fact that this is the fourth such amnesty issued by Bashar al-Assad during the uprising probably blunts the impact, and opposition spokesmen dismissed it.

Anwar Malek, an Algerian member of the monitoring team, told Al Jazeera he resigned because of what he saw, and said that the mission was falling apart.

“What I saw was a humanitarian disaster. The regime is not just committing one war crime, but a series of crimes against its people,” he said.

Observers from the Arab League have reached Homs, Syria, at the same time as Syrian security forces pulled tanks off the streets. Even then, security forces squeezed off their final shots at the protesters and tanks are still reported waiting just outside the cities.

Earlier in the week, Syria agreed to allow Arab League monitors into the country to observe the pullback of security forces from residential areas throughout the country. But they aren’t due to enter the country for a few days. In the meantime, Syrian security forces are wiping out the opposition.

The action by the collection of Arab states against the Syrian regime followed a so-called peace agreement that the Arab League brokered with Bashar al-Assad, which was supposed to end violence by security forces. However, a day after agreeing to the peace deal, Syrian security killed 10 protesters, and since that time Syria has continued to lay waste to the country, killing 250 protesters in 11 days.

The uprising in Syria may have reached a tipping point. The Arab League has ended its silence on Bashar al-Assad’s brutal repression of protesters and condemned the violence, expressing “growing concern and serious distress” at the attacks. But more important, Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador, a crucial vote of no confidence in the Assad regime.

Let’s make no mistake, this incursion into Deraa is a preface to a massacre, along the lines of the massacre of Benghazi that was halted by coalition airstrikes. Press Secretary Jay Carney tried a pass at describing Libya as a unique situation to prevent mass carnage, but you have tanks rolling into the streets of Deraa. That just doesn’t logically follow.

But Carney also said something else, letting his slip show. He said that Libya was unique because of the support of the Arab League. And that’s the real point here. Syria is a member of the Arab League, as was Libya until Moammar Gadhafi was expelled.

As French jets continue to run sorties against Libyan targets, they claim that Qatar will soon deploy four planes into the region. The contention from the coalition enforcing UN resolution 1973 is that they have Arab League buy-in on the operation, and the inclusion of Qatar in the coalition would seem to confirm it. But the Arab League has actually criticized the effort after only one day.

So I picked the wrong day to be stuck without Internet access, I guess. It was March 19, eight years to the day after the invasion of Iraq, the US lobbed Tomahawk missiles into Libya, attempting to take out air defenses in preparation for enforcing a no-fly zone.