Why are all these unaccompanied children coming to the United States from Central America? If you find yourself wanting to answer this question with some intelligence and history on your side, even if the person asking it doesn't really care about intelligence or history, give this Huffington Post read a try, "Here's How The U.S. Sparked A Refugee Crisis On The Border, In 8 Simple Steps."

While the problem is sad and may seem complicated, the list is a reminder that when we value history and learning, the problem is insanely simple and the children are political pawns in a system that doesn't care—on both sides of the border:

The 57,000 children from Central America who have streamed across the U.S.-Mexico border this year were driven in large part by the United States itself. While Democrats and Republicans have been pointing fingers at each other, in reality the current wave of migration from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras has its roots in six decades of U.S. policies carried out by members of both parties.

Since the 1950s, the U.S. has sown violence and instability in Central America. Decades of Cold War gamesmanship, together with the relentless global war on drugs, have left a legacy of chaos and brutality in these countries. In many parts of the region, civil society has given way to lawlessness. It's these conditions the children are escaping.