The veteran BBC reporter has been on the ground in Syria since the early days of hope in the Arab spring. A conflict that has gone on longer than the second world war, drawing in 75 countries and counting. The appalling truth of a war so long and entangled in world politics is that you become confused, disengaged and desensitised. “President Obama would always ask: ‘How is that actually going to fix the problem?’” says the former senior foreign policy adviser Derek Chollet of the CIA plan to arm rebel militias. Later, Artino and his friends borrowed a generator and clubbed together to buy a TV so they could watch how President Obama, and the world, would react.

Source: The Guardian May 03, 2018 21:00 UTC