Two Links on Syria; Two Very Different Deaths

The Syrian tragedy is so vast, so seemingly beyond solution, as to make it very difficult to comprehend. Here are two links that put a human face to it, though they deal with the deaths of two utterly different men:

• "Memories of Father Frans," by Rima Marrouch at the Rasif  blog, remembering Father Frans van der Lugt, the Dutch Jesuit priest killed yesterday in his monastery in Homs, a man who had lived in Syria since 1966, said Mass in fusha and preached in Syrian colloquial, killed by unknown gunmen but likely jihadis.

• And a very different sort of man entirely: "Who was Hilal al-Assad?," by "Mohammad D." at Syria Comment," anout the recent death in Latakia, the family stronghold, of a cousin of President Bashar al-Asad.

Vignettes of two very different deaths in a war that has killed untold thousands.