AFTERWARD: The Top Five Silver Linings of 2016

2. “What is Aleppo?”

When asked what he would do about Aleppo in early September, Johnson asked, “What is Aleppo?”

This might have been Gary Johnson’s worst moment in the 2016 election, but the desire to ridicule Johnson increased awareness of the conflict in Syria’s largest city that had been raging over four years. Suddenly the horrors of the war in Syria suddenly moved to the front burner, as well as knowledge that Russia had become involved in the Syrian civil war a year earlier. This past month there have been social media postings from civilians trapped in Aleppo begging for help from the outside world (although some are suspicious that some maintain that this is a propaganda campaign). This increased pressure on Obama’s administration to “do something” about Aleppo. Just as John Kerry was to announce a new plan to end hostilities, Russia and Turkey brokered a ceasefire within the past few days. One must suspect that Russia’s efforts are, in part, motivated by a desire to show-up the Obama administration, but if they are successful, it will, at the very least, bring a hiatus from violence for the innocents in the crossfire.