Senator Carr spoke with the refugees during a visit to their camp in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, on the border with Syria.
The refugees urged Senator Carr to back military intervention to bring the civil war in Syria to an end.
“Why doesn’t the outside world intervene to put an end to the killing in Syria?” one woman asked.
Senator Carr replied: “I think the big powers are afraid of getting involved in another war in an Islamic country. They’re afraid of that.
“They think it’ll be a drawn-out war of attrition, and I hear that not even the American armed forces want to take those risks with the strength of the Assad army.”
The women responded that even a world war would be better than what they have been living through.
“But isn’t what’s happening in Syria a war in itself?” one asked.
“The amputated children, the raped women – where is the humanitarian consideration?”