“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?” ~~Mahatma Gandhi~~
Americans are accustomed to eruptions of hostility with North Korea, but in the past six months the enmity has reached a level rarely seen since the end of the Korean War, in 1953. The crisis has been hastened by fundamental changes in the leadership on both sides.
In the six years since Kim Jong Un assumed power, at the age of twenty-seven, he has tested eighty-four missiles – more than double the number that his father and grandfather tested. Just before DrumpF took office, in January 2017, he expressed a willingness to wage a “preventive” war in North Korea, a prospect that previous Presidents dismissed because it would risk an enormous loss of life.
Syria has been at the forefront of the news for several years.
We know about the war raging within its borders.
We have seen the many refugees leaving and running into uncertain conditions about their travels and their eventual destination.
This week, the situation attracted a huge spotlight due to the launching of Tomahawk missiles, early Friday, April 7, by the United States on a base in western Syria that the United States says was used to launch Tuesday’s chemical attack, April 4, which left nearly 100 people dead and hundreds more injured.
The video explains the many details, factions, alliances and ‘players’.
Ezra Klein brings you a video that starts where all good videos of this type start: from the beginning of the conflict so as to understand how it has morphed beyond its original intent.
After four-plus years of fighting, Syria’s war has killed at least 250,000 people and displaced 12 million people. And, though it started as a civil war, it’s become much more than that.
It’s a proxy war that has divided much of the Middle East, and has drawn in both Russia and the United States.
To understand how Syria got to this place, it helps to start at the beginning and watch it unfold.
Born and raised by underpaid public school teachers in Sanford, Fla., Andy Marlette graduated from the University of Florida and became staff editorial cartoonist at the Pensacola News Journal in 2007.
Andy’s editorial cartoons have become both hated and adored by daily readers. His work has been awarded by the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors for best editorial cartoons on state issues.
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It Is What It Is 