As far as debugging, its possible to use a normal break and watch approach. This is made difficult by how you've formatted the rules though. If you format per the spirit examples (~one parser per line, one phoenix statement per line), break points will be much more informative.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.