Syria 101

Shia, Sunni, Alawite, Druze, Assad, Al-Qaeda ... The history of this area is long and the alliances many and complicated, but the fact is that, at its base, what we're talking about here is real people. People like you and me. Around 100,000 killed, almost 7,000 of those children, and about 2 million refugees so far. And now the U.S. is considering military action. How can we wrap our heads around all this? Here is one good place to try (story, video): http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/08/29/9-questions-about-syria-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask/
   Another resource is this town hall put together by moveon.org. It's from Aug. 30, so some of the comments are already out of date, but the background information is valid and informative (video): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oGbKr6IxZs#t=810