And it really upsets me.
It is not my place to comment on the motivations or dynamics of this war, but somehow shooting or bludgeoning each other to death makes a whole lot more sense to my psyche than self d3t0nation.
For those who haven't heard a su1c1de b0mb3r d3t0nate themselves...and trust me, I'm struggling just to type those words...it sounds like, well, sometimes like thunder. I woke up to a deep rolling boom one morning and had my run bag in my hand and the curtains open praying it was raining- so fast I hadn't even really woken up. The sky was blue, well, pollution haze blue, but not a storm cloud in sight. We found out later it was a truck that pulled up next to a G0vernment Minister on her way to work. 'Only' 5 casualties.
The next evening, quite late, three went off in a row, with deep ground shuddering thumps like a fireworks display. It was a was a co-ordinated @ttack and was followed up (according to my inbox the next morning) with an @rmed raid on a compound a few suburbs away.
I flew out for my RnR break the next day and the city was on edge. Check points everywhere. On my way into the airport our car was searched twice, I was patted down (by women) FIVE TIMES and my luggage was scanned four times. Seems Im not the only one jumpy about 3xpl0sions.
In the last week there have been three more- all targetted at foreigners, which raises the question of whether the c0nflict itself is escalating, or whether there has merely been a change in tactics and resource allocation. Time, and the security analysts, will tell.
But it got me wondering what constitutes 'w@r' and how many others might be going on in the word that might not be making it to the news - and you know what REALLY surprised me?
In terms of cumulative and annual casualties, the second biggest conflict to the 5yrian crisis is...the Mexican drug war! So says wikipedia. Check it out if you're interested:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ongoing_armed_conflicts
