At the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, presidents Trump and Putin agreed on a temporary cease fire in the Syrian civil war. Syria has been in the news a lot of late, and it is hard to realize that it was only thirty-three hundred  years ago that the great Egyptian-Hittite clash of empires occurred near the little Syrian town of Kadesh, resulting in the first recorded account of a battle, and the first recorded account of fake news when the Pharaoh Ramses lost the battle but convinced historians for over three thousand years that he had won when he falsely portrayed the battle as a great Egyptian victory on the large stone panels on the outer walls of the Ramseum in Thebes. One hundred years later the Hittite Empire ceased to exist, along with every other kingdom and people in the neighborhood, with a grievously wounded Egypt, the only survivor of the still mysterious catastrophe. All of which makes one wonder who, if anyone, will survive the current contretemps and who will history forget.

For centuries the name rang down
Rameses the second
Or maybe not, for his renown
Is not what he had reckoned
When on the broad Damascus Road
His chariots and horses
Advanced at speed to Ramses’ goad
To meet the Hittite forces
Alas the battle turned out well
For Hittite, not Mizziri
But history had no tale to tell
For history does get weary
Of minor disagreements that
Seem major to observers
But in the end it all falls flat
Despite the seeming fervors
Of all involved in tiny acts
Of no historic meaning
The Middle East, and just the facts
Has heard its women keening
For centuries as armies trod
The land with sword and fire
All in the name of one true god
And as for me, I tire