Reuters (April 20)
“Income tax was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1799 to fund the Napoleonic Wars against France. America imposed the tax in 1861 to pay for its civil war. The coronavirus pandemic is not literally a war. But it will lead to massive debts and eventually higher taxes.”
Tags: Civil war, Coronavirus, Debts, France, Fund, Income tax, Napoleonic Wars, Pandemic, Taxes, U.S., UK
PBS News Hour (April 15)
President Trump is now “trying to confront a dilemma that haunted his predecessor, Barack Obama. Syria’s seven-year civil war presents few fast or easy solutions for the U.S., yet the geopolitical rivalries at play, the presence of the Islamic State group and other extremists, and the atrocities perpetrated by the Assad government make the situation impossible to ignore.”
Tags: Assad, Atrocities, Civil war, Confront, Dilemma, Extremists, Geopolitical, Islamic State, Obama, Rivalries, Solutions, Syria, Trump, U.S.
Washington Post (September 17)
“Afghanistan is teetering between a political implosion that could ignite civil war in Kabul and a power-sharing deal that could give the country another chance for stability.” Official election results will soon be announced, but due to voting irregularities a “winner-takes-all approach” is unsustainable. “It is up to Mr. Abdullah and Mr. Ghani [the two candidates] to show that Afghanistan can have a future under moderate, pragmatic leaders who are able to compromise.”
Tags: Abdullah, Afghanistan, Civil war, Compromise, Election, Ghani, Implosion, Kabul, Leaders, Moderate, Power sharing, Pragmatic, Results, Stability, Voting
Wall Street Journal (June 13)
“The magnitude of the debacle now unfolding in Iraq is becoming clearer by the day.” The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) has seized control of Mosul and Tikrit, and is “marching ever closer to Baghdad….An extended civil war seems to be the best near-term possibility.”
Washington Post (January 17, 2014)
“Over the past few months, the Middle East has become an even more violent place than usual. Iraq is now once again home to one of the most bloody civil wars in the world, after Syria of course, which is the worst.” There is no quick fix that outsiders can provide. “In fact, the last thing the region needs is more U.S. intervention.” The Middle East’s deep-rooted tension is part of “a sectarian struggle, like those between Catholics and Protestants in Europe in the age of the Reformation. These tensions are rooted in history and politics and will not easily go away.”
Tags: Catholics, Civil war, Europe, History, Intervention, Iraq, Middle East, Politics, Protestants, Reformation, Struggle, Syria, Tensions, U.S., Violence
New York Times (May 9, 2013)
Three years of fighting in Syria have cost 70,000 lives. “There are reasons to be skeptical about plans by Russia and the United States to hold an international conference on Syria — diplomats often propose meetings when they don’t have solutions. But, at a time when the civil war is worsening in every way, this initiative counts as a hopeful sign.”
