Nick Paton Walsh is a senior international correspondent for CNN International. The opinions in this article belong to the author.

(CNN) Saying there are "no words" to describe a horror is infuriating. But now not saying anything has become the new way to talk about the world's nastiest war.

It is essentially the job of the United Nations to find the words -- to articulate the savagery being again unleashed on the people of Syria. Instead, they put out a statement saying that "No words will do justice to the children killed, their mothers, their fathers and their loved ones" following yet another day of brutality in Ghouta.

It's not as if the carnage escapes the boundaries of language -- it doesn't. But the "no words" statement alluded to two things that are far more chilling.

First: after seven years of condemning violence in the "strongest possible terms," the UN -- the main mediator and supplier of aid -- has instead concluded that saying it can only say nothing about something is the only way in which it can grab attention.

The second, more chilling conclusion from the statement, is that the UN effectively accepts it no longer has a role in Syria. Russia's UN Security Council veto stymies any meaningful resolution -- which is often dismissed by the Assad regime that stands accused of using sarin gas again, despite a resolution demanding they surrender all chemical weapons.

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