As the conflict in Syria intensified Assad continued to add to his eclectic playlist, ordering Hurt by Leona Lewis, Look at Me Now by Chris Brown featuring Lil Wayne and Busta Rhymes and – on New Year's Eve – A Tribute to Cliff Richard by 21st Century Christmas.
Businesses have to wait weeks to liquidate foreign exchange orders, hurting capital mobility.
But if you're doing something in order to hurt the person who hurt you, ditch the need to "get back at" the other person.
And some will gladly die in order to hurt you - in order to stop you.
In its simplest form, a Chinese throws a grenade at a Japanese, in order to hurt the Japanese.
He was the kind of person who would select one person to praise in order to hurt the other".
Finally, people can steal in order to hurt other people by taking away something that they value.
Such words lead some to the conclusion that Republicans will do anything, including short-circuiting the economy, in order to hurt Obama politically.
They include weakening China's currency, the renminbi, in order to hurt US exporters, or seeking warming ties with North Korea and pumping economic aid into Pyongyang.
Moshe Ya'alon, Israel's vice premier, fuelled speculation of Israeli involvement on Tuesday when he told Army Radio: "Whoever sees the Iranian threat as a serious threat would be likely to take different steps, including these, in order to hurt them".
