Free Republic

The violent unrest that has broken out in multiple towns across England and Northern Ireland this week feels simultaneously shocking and familiar. Rioters have rampaged across more than 15 towns and cities, looting businesses, injuring police officers, attacking mosques and targeting hotels that house asylum seekers. Britain has had sporadic outbreaks of semi-organized mob violence for decades, including brawls by infamous “firms” of soccer hooligans in the 1980s and ’90s, an outbreak of race rioting in northern England in 2001 and a spate of rioting and looting centered on London in 2011. But some circumstances are markedly different. While the...

Amanda Taub tries to explain why the war on Yemen is mostly ignored and Syria’s conflict is not: Conflicts gain sustained American attention only when they provide a compelling story line that appeals to both the public and political actors, and for reasons beyond the human toll. That often requires some combination of immediate relevance to American interests, resonance with American political debates or cultural issues, and, perhaps most of all, an emotionally engaging frame of clearly identifiable good guys and bad guys [bold mine-DL]. Most wars — including those in South Sudan, Sri Lanka and, yes, Yemen — do...