As of this first week of October, Syria (and the world) became a lot scarier place. Already hell on earth, with half of its population displaced by war, hundreds of thousands killed and hundreds of thousands more injured or mutilated, the Syrian nation is now facing not only the airstrikes by the 60-country US-led coalition on Islamic State targets, but also the direct intervention of the Russian military against any and all rebels seeking to overthrow Moscow’s friends and allies in the harsh, authoritarian Bashar al-Assad regime. Syria is strategic to Russia in its Middle-Eastern backyard, and Moscow has a close-knit relationship with the ruling Assad family dating back to 1970, when Hafez al-Assad came to power after a series of military coups starting in 1963 and in which he gained ever greater control, rising from defense minister to prime minister and, finally, to president, an office he held for 30 years, before handing power down to son Bashar in 2000. Even before the 1970s
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Author Roberto Vivo comments on wars past and present, on the world’s great peacemakers and on the pathway to global peace. His basic philosophy: In a world where 9 out of every 10 victims of armed conflict are civilians, war is no longer a viable political alternative. Indeed, it is the ultimate crime against humanity. If rising generations are to have a future, the key will lie in world peace. War is the pathway to oblivion.