Syrian Refugees

Everyone is in an uproar about this Syrian refugee "crisis." Normally, I don't chime in on these types of things too much, but here goes my .02. Begin rant.

I don't rely heavily on my facebook feed for a place to get valuable, accurate information about what's going on in the world, but it does give me a pretty accurate representation about how my friends feel about topics like this.. At least until I unfollow them. I'm honestly probably only following about half of my friends list (and that's a generous estimate). I've been seeing two sides of facebook propaganda the last couple of weeks. The far right side says we don't need to allow refugees, and if we do, go with Donald Trump's suggestion of making Muslims carry a special ID that shows their faith because they could be terrorists. People of America, may I introduce, Hitler with his new and improved, unkempt toupee'?  While we're making them carry special IDs and putting patches on their shoulders, why don't we just skip a few steps and start incinerating them? Honestly, how does that not sound like the beginning of the Holocaust?

Hitler similarities aside, Donald Trump may be an excellent businessman, but business politics are nothing close to world politics. In business, you can lose your temper, scream "you're fired," and basically ignore anyone you don't like. You can't ignore Russia, people; and you can't bully them into any position you want. If Trump and Putin got into it, as much as I hate to say it, that's a war game Putin would win. Trump has straight up said he knows more than our Generals. I'm pretty sure that's another place Hitler went wrong. There's also this thing called the United Nations where we have a permanent seat with veto power! Trump, if elected, may discover that playing games with the stock market is not the same as running a nation. And while the United States President may be considered the most powerful man in the world, he doesn't rule the world, and there are still rules he has to follow. But I digress, this isn't about Trump...

The second half of that argument was that refugees might be terrorists. That's ignorant, people. Of course some of them are terrorists. Are all of them? No. In fact, a great majority of them aren't terrorists. And the terrorists that might be kept out by not being in allowed in as refugees would find another way in. Honestly, does no one remember 9/11? Did no one read about how the attackers in Paris all had passports? One of them even had a French passport! If terrorists want in, they'll get in. Does being a refugee make it easier to get here? Yes, but it makes it harder for them to hide here. Which is their ultimate goal. And while most of the refugees coming here wouldn't be outright terrorists, or even Muslims for that matter - I know, it's hard to believe someone from the Middle East could belong to a religion other than Islam, but Syria practically encompasses Lebanon, a State that's been ruled by both Christians and Muslims since it's inception. - a majority of them would be Muslims. And when a large population of one religion or nationality or even region is moved en-mass to another place in the world, they will band together. That's why we have neighborhoods in the United States that are comprised almost solely of Hispanics, or Russians, or Africans. It's simple psychology and sociology. Those who would have only been considered lip-service Muslims will find familiarity in their local Mosque. It will be the only place that feels like home in a world of white men who are nothing but suspicious of them. If that mosque happens to be one that preaches to the more extreme side of Islam, you're bound to breed a few terrorists.

The other side of the news feed propaganda I've been seeing is the whole "we were refugees too. We're all immigrants" blah blah bullshit. Allow me to give you all a history lesson. The United States did not begin as a place for people to escape to. For many, that may have been how it was, but people came here to settle a new land. In the beginning, this land was still owned by the English and the people who came to settle here were coming here to settle in a land where they had to fight the Indians, win, and start a family and worship in their own way. Fast forward a little and you have the Revolutionary War. This is the part you should pay attention to. When the government was imposing unfair taxes, the thirteen colonies revolted and started a war that won them their independence. In Syria you have president Bashar Al-Assad who was never meant to be president. He was an ophthalmologist in London for crying out loud! BUT! For ten years (beginning in 2001) he returned to Syria as his familial duty when his father and older brother died rather unexpectedly (whatever anyone tells you, Syria isn't a Democracy. It's "officially" a Republic and unofficially a monarchy) and ruled with a gentle hand, slowly implementing more western policies so as not to upset those in power who liked things "the old way." In 2011 when the Arab Spring began, things went to shit. Instead of the Syrian people stopping to think about it and saying, "hey, we've got a President here who is trying to make things better for us," they hopped on the Arab Spring bandwagon and got a little out of hand. I'm not in any way condoning how Assad gassed his people, nor the civil war he's been engaged in, but I can see where he's coming from. Most people in Syria don't understand their own politics (neither do most Americans for that matter); but if you put yourself in Assad's shoes all you can really say is, "Dude, I've been here for ten years and I've been giving you ungrateful assholes as much as I can as fast as I can. Believe it or not, my hands are tied. How do you think my dad and brother died? Now you want to revolt? Fine! We'll just go back to the way my dad used to handle things!" The Syrian people, while they didn't have all the liberties they wanted, were too blind to realize they were being given those liberties about as fast as they could come. It took until 1920 for women to be able to vote in the U.S.. That's 144 years in a state founded on Christian values and equal rights. You think you'll get it any time soon in a nation founded on Islam and Sharia law?! Baby steps, people.

The Syrian people had the gall to start a civil war, but lack the fortitude to finish one. This is a population which has solved a majority of their issues with violence. They were getting their desired changes through diplomacy and started a war anyway. Now they're running. Even if it was only the women and children coming to the United States as refugees, you just took away the Syrian Army's main reason to fight for their own independence. I'll preface this next statement by admitting that I am not a veteran. (I'm trying to join the military, but I have to wait another year before I'll be allowed in for medical reasons) However, I'm pretty sure most of our current military, particularly those who joined shortly after 9/11, did so so they could protect their homeland. So they could make sure their loved ones would continue to sleep soundly at night. They went off to war so the women and children in their nation never had to witness the violence they brought to the doorstep of our enemies. One might argue that there's not been a war fought among our homes since the Civil War like there is in Syria right now. To that I say, shouldn't they be MORE motivated to fight?! If there were a war being fought among our homes every redneck in the nation (man, woman, and probably youth) would be wearing mossy oak with an American flag sewn on their shoulder lugging around their bow, shotgun, pistol, and any other weapon they could find. If we're doing anything for the Syrian people by taking in their refugees, we're taking away their motivation to fight. And as an American, I don't necessarily care to harbor cowards who haven't the gall to fight for themselves.

End rant.