KINGSTON, Jamaica - WE share United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's view that the Syrian crisis represents the "biggest challenge to peace and security in the world" today.
Anyone who doubts the veracity of that analysis need only examine what has happened in the two-and-a-half years since the Syrian people revolted against the repressive Bashar al-Assad regime on the wave of the Arab spring.
More than 110,000 people have been killed in the fighting between rebel and government forces, an estimated four million people have been internally displaced, and at least two million Syrians have fled their homeland to neighbouring countries.