What you are looking at is a political cartoon by Carlos Latuff; and its meaning is not steeped in mystery.  This cartoon illustrates the fact that the Syrian civil war has no infallible defender of freedom.  This cartoon was drawn in 2012 when the human rights violations of the Assad regime had just been brought to the public attention via the mainstream media to support the arming of a "moderate" rebellion in Syria.   Our financial and military support was supposedly going to a group of defected Syrian armed forces soldiers called the free Syrian army, or "FSA", as depicted on the left Kalashnikov's stock.  While Russia has been committed to the man of a "stable" government in Syria, there has been no question about who they are supporting in this conflict and to this day Russia backs their ally.  From looking at this cartoon it is clear that there is not a good guy in this, only two equally horrid systems. They can't back down from their skull trenches since no single person is to blame, yet if one side where to back down they accept the shame. 

Well now that you have a background on this cartoon what is going on?  The ground is the Syrian flag under the Assad regime.  This clearly represents the fact that all of this is happening within a sovereign nation.  However taking things a step further the red in the Syrian flag represents the blood shed by invaders.  Given what the world has come to know about the Syrians we supported in 2012 it is quite fitting that the blood of invaders is over the "Free Syrian Army".  The black of the Syrian flag represents the Abbasid Caliphate, and it is under Assad to show his devotion to restoring order in Syria.  That deep black with the crosshatching showing at the end is representative of death and oppression in pursuit of that order.  Going up from the ground there is a standoff between four well-dressed men.  These men are not combatants; however they are at war with money.  This is shown in the cartoon by having their arms crossed while their only link to the fighting is the coin baring hands that represent them.  Under the four men well-dressed men there are two men in army fatigues pointing identical weapons at each other while using piles of skulls as makeshift trenches.  Fueling the fight are the two arms reaching from the top of the image sliding coins into the heads of their militants.  In the background there is blackness and fire which represent the destruction of the region. The most important aspect of all of the elements is that; they are all presented equally.  Latuff does this to present both parties as equally harmful to Syria. 

The people depicted in this image have as much to say about the meaning of this cartoon as what is going on. Starting with the non-combatants, the disembodied arms are personifications of the United States (left) and Russia (right). They are the might behind both sides at a kind of quasi war with each other.  The man on the far left in the white is king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz and as far as US foreign policy is concerned he gets what he wants.  (He does this by sending money to Politians in the US for campaign costs, in exchange those Politian's make him happy through waging war or sanctioning.)  Some popular examples of this are, in the case of the US invasion into Iraq, the US imposing sanctions on Iran, and the US supporting rebellion in Libya . On the list of Saudi rivals and enemies is Syria which is why the king is depicted with a grimace.  The reason that a Saudi king is behind The President is simple; he wants a return on his investment into the American political system.  President Obama represents America, and that is his job in theses political comics. The most interesting man on the left has to be the supposed Free Syrian Army.  The FSA as previously stated was supposed to be a group of fed up Syrians who withdrew support for the brutal dictator.  However things are never that simple, the rebels the US was pumping money into where in fact not the FSA.  The USA was funding what they had been fighting for nearly 12 years at that point.  Islamic extremists of every flavor where given money and equipment to topple the government of a sovereign nation (Al-Qaeda and the Islamic state most notably).  The man in the blue suit is Bashar Hafez al-Assad the ophthalmologist turned war criminal himself.  This whole kerfuffle was set into motion because his government was not inclusive to minorities (that is not uncommon for the region), which in turn led to an unsatisfied population that he would go on to murder.  Assad is not the ideal leader to say how is he able to stay in power with such strong opposition from the west and Saudi Arabia? The answer is right behind him in the grey suit; Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.  Since the Syrian Civil war Russia has made it clear that it wants the ruling Ba'ath Party to stay in power. This side of the skull trench has maintained its position through the conflict the man receiving Russia's coin has remained the same.  There has been no question of who the Russian Government wants to remain in power. There remains no good guy in this conflict, just two equally evil systems.

 Both sides have some nasty war criminals; all around the skull trench waging war to prop up a defense industry ran out of control on both sides.  Neither side can show weakness in this quasi war. There is much more at stake than who governs Syria, the world is constantly running the risk of a very long manmade winter if things get out of hand.  In these global pissing contests it is important to remember the lives that have been lost, and the lives that still hang in the balance.  One side may not be the holiest of holies and the other side may not be the root of all evil, but they are both equally to blame.  This cartoon represents this feeling of global shame that should be felt when one thinks about how much this planet has too loose over pride, and an unwillingness to back down from your skull trench. 

