Maya Shwayder

The niceties -- gripped hands, bared teeth, and high-school style backstabbing -- that characterize the United Nations Security Council may be shaping into an honest-to-goodness battle as the United States has announced it will provide firearms to “moderate rebels” in Syria. In response, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is asking Russia to step up its support of the government.

The Syrian civil war, which was once a part of the Arab Spring, exemplifying the American ideals of democracy and self-determination, will become a proxy fighting ground for two world superpowers to flex their muscles while still smiling at each other across the boardroom, and while civilians die all around them. Both will claim the mandate of “stopping the bloodshed.” Both will, in all likelihood, prolong it; this is now not only a battle of ideals, but another standoff between old enemies who will be damned before they let the other one win.