There have been warring factions in Syria for many years, and doubtless there will be conflict there for many years to come. However, death and destruction has never been on this scale before.

It is estimated that the present conflict, which flared up in 2011, would have gradually abated after about twelve months, but for the constant re-armament of the warring factions by other countries, enabling destruction of property and dislocation of people on a scale not seen since World War 2.

There are currently more than eighteen million Syrians who have been displaced and many of them are women and children. That, by way of comparison, significantly exceeds the combined populations of New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago or, put another way, more than three-quarters of the entire population of Australia.

Photo by Mstyslav Chernov (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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