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Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/opinion/assad-has-won-in-syria-but-syria-hardly-exists.html
Syria Hardly Exists
(New York Times) David W. Lesch and James Gelvin - More than 80% of Syrians live below the poverty line and nearly 70% live in extreme poverty, meaning they cannot secure basic needs, according to a 2016 report by the Syrian Center for Policy Research. The unemployment rate is 58%, with a significant number of those employed working as smugglers, fighters or elsewhere in the war economy. Life expectancy has dropped by 20 years since the beginning of the uprising in 2011. About half of children no longer attend school. Diseases formerly under control, like typhoid, tuberculosis, hepatitis A and cholera, are once again endemic. Upward of 500,000 are dead from the war and more than two million are injured. Close to half the population of Syria is either internally or externally displaced. And the battle is, in reality, far from over. David W. Lesch is a professor of Middle East history at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. James Gelvin is a professor of Middle East history at UCLA.