What is there to say about Syria—on the human level—that hasn’t been said? The horror of the atrocities, the rising number of casualties, all of these can have a numbing effect. I remember thinking seven people killed in one day was an awful lot when the protests first started. One Friday in June 2011—it was reported that over sixty people were killed in Hama alone when security forces fired indiscriminately at a protest. One thousand, two thousand; at some point these people just become numbers. Our brains need a practical way to manage the information.

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