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Syria: The Gutting of a Nation
(Washington Post) Liz Sly - Syria's population was estimated to be 22.4 million in 2011 when the uprising against the Assad regime began. In 4 1/2 years, more than half the population has been killed, displaced or fled the country. Those reaching Europe represent a small percentage of the 4 million Syrians who have fled into Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey and Iraq, and the realization is dawning that most won't be going home anytime soon. Destitute refugees throng the streets of Beirut, Istanbul, and Amman. Mothers clutching children sleep on traffic circles, under bridges, in parks and in the doorways of shops. Families pool their savings and borrow from friends to pay smugglers who pile them onto boats crossing the Mediterranean to Europe. But Europe is an option available only to those with the means to pay the $5-6,000 demanded by smugglers. "You can't have 25% of your country full of another citizenry and not have problems. There are going to be problems in Lebanon, and the same with Jordan," said Rochelle Davis, an associate professor in the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University.