at least 1140 people have died in the last 22 days in eastern ghouta, including 402 women and children. joining us now, a journalist and author of the new book no turning back life, loss and hope in wartime syria. that is out today. great to have you with us here. thank you. on set. there s so many different nations now involved in this conflict in syria. sometimes for us here in the west, it s hard found or wrap our head around it. how did this become such a global proxy war? because of syria s geopolitical position, it was allied to iran and to russia. and the syrian so on the one side, you have iran and russia and lebanese is backing the assad regime. then you have the gulf state, saudi arabia, turkey on the other side with the backing of the u.s. and europe. so it s a proxy war and it s a battlefield for so many different nations. i want to talk a little bit about your book.