Damascus, the capital city of Syria \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Just off the phone with a friend \u2014 a prominent Syrian intellectual \u2014 in Damascus. \u00a0It was about midnight when our call ended. \u00a0He was very tired, but he still had to go out and find water. \u00a0ISIS has evidently destroyed one of the major water pipelines into the city; for the past month or so, four million or more people have been obliged to get their water from tanker trucks.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
He\u2019s happy that Mr. Obama is gone and that Mrs. Clinton lost. \u00a0He doesn\u2019t like Mr. Trump, but is cautiously optimistic that the new president of the United States will be better for Syria than those two alternatives.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Let us hope!<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump has assumed an office that, for good or for ill, will affect many, many millions of people \u2014 and not only in the United States. \u00a0I pray that he\u2019ll rise to the responsibility.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Just off the phone with a friend \u2014 a prominent Syrian intellectual \u2014 in Damascus. \u00a0It was about midnight when our call ended. \u00a0He was very tired, but he still had to go out and find water. \u00a0ISIS has evidently destroyed one of the major water pipelines into the city; for the past […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-39319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>