'Toontime: When Words Fail

This photo from the recently past G-8 summit confirms the ability of a good photograph to compress reality, or as commonly said "to be worth a thousand words". Two of the mortal world's most powerful men are clearly unable to come to terms on ending the bloodshed in Syria, but seem are willing to continiue the killing by supplying arms to both sides:

Pop quiz: Which one above is the Nobel Peace Prize recipient?

[credit: Randy Jones]

Just a few weeks ago the fortunes of war appeared to be turning against Assad, but after Hezbollah allied with him and won a victory in Qusayr the regime now has the upper hand and is moving on the rebel stronghold of Aleppo. Exigencies of the proxy conflict has allowed the Current Occupant to send more arms to a side that is fragmented and dominated by jihadists who are enemies of the West in other countries, i.e Mali. The longer the civil war continues the more it aggravates the Sunni-Shia sectarian divide throughout the Middle East. Already, Iran is spiraling downward into a renewal of its own sectarian conflict within two years of US troops leaving the country. Since April 2,000 people have died in bombing attacks there. Thirty-seven were killed when bombers attacked a Shia mosque in northern Baghdad on Tuesday.