The original purpose of economic sanctions is to put pressure on a government to change it's positions. It is already well know that sanctions affect the whole country and usually the ordinary people are the ones who pay the price, while the elite in the government are virtually not affected. The argument is that it will put political pressure on the government (or the elite) to change by the people. As in N Korea or Iran the people suffer because of the sanctions but the wisdom is that people will eventually put enough political pressure on their government for change. While this logic is flawed, this is another discussion.

In the case of Syria, people are already revolting against the government and because of that they are being punished. It is clear by now that the people are not able to exert any more political pressure on a totalitarian regime that doesn't care. In most cases the burden of the economic sanctions are born by the people while the governing elite keeps the scarce remaining supplies.

Some economic sanctions currently put on the Syria are simply adding to the misery of the normal people with no way of achieving it's original purpose.

P.S.:  If you live in the US you can sign the petition on the white house website here: http://wh.gov/PSSv