Interesting article that discusses how many Liberians are responding to the Ebola virus outbreak. Many Liberians have lived through extreme plight because of the 14 year civil war that ended in 2003. Many Liberian's do not simply turn their back on the sick. The plight they have faced keeps them resilient through the struggle that Ebola creates. They keep humanity alive.

Having spent last week trying to persuade other countries to support the U.S.-led military assault on the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, President Obama used an interview with Steve Kroft, of CBS News' "60 Minutes," to give Americans an update. In general, his tone was upbeat. The article discusses the U.S. military action being taken in Iraq, and discusses the question of the how effective the strategy may be. It says that the strategy seems to be more about causing problem for ISIS and seeing the outcome. The complexity of the situation makes the result especially difficult to predict.

I chose this article about the Israel-Palestine conflict because it talks about how this conflict is not an isolated battle between Israel and Palestine. The Op-Ed columnist David Brooks writes that because of all the conflict in the Middle East each country, group, or "political contour" that is striving for power influences the actions of either the Palestinian or Israeli parties. For example, Brooks mentions how Egypt blocked 95% of the tunnels that connected Egypt to Gaza, which costed Hamas $460 million a year. Hamas could not attack Egypt, so they attacked Israel instead. The public dissatisfaction caused Egypt to end the blockade. Thus, the external parties in the Middle East have a large effect on the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Brooks says that the conflict should therefore be analyzed from a different perspective: "It, like every conflict in the region, has to be seen as a piece of the larger 30 Years' War" (Brooks). This article shows us that we need to think a little more broadly when analyzing certain conflicts.