(September 17, 2015 at 6:47 pm)Minimalist Wrote: C/L this is an impossibly complex problem and Syria is only part of it. There are waves of refugees from Libya and the Horn of Africa not to mention sub-saharan Africa who are mainly economic refugees although "peace" in those countries can be tenuous at best.
To a certain extent the west does have some culpability because we do encourage the rebels by pretending that the "government" is always bad and the "rebels" are always good. Well, this is not fucking Star Wars and Hollywood horseshit has no place in realistic discussions of actual problems. No government tolerates rebellion, including our own...in case anyone forgot the Civil War or the earlier Shays and Whiskey Rebellions. I think it might have been Rand Paul who pointed out that whenever we have conspired in or actively replaced a secular arab dictator the result has been worse for the nations involved, not better: Libya, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Yemen. We pretended that the Arab Spring was a flowering of "democracy" but you can't give democracy to people who think it means that they get to kill their adversaries.
I have no solution for this. The European Union has created an impossible scenario for itself. They hold out the hope of refuge but then can't make it happen and they risk serious political repercussion on the home front which will put an end to the "refuge" real fast. Europe has less than a stellar record of dealing with minorities throughout history. Some of that is religion-related but a lot is simply nationalism. And before the US starts acting all high and mighty and pretends, as we normally do, that things are black or white we need to remember that we have signally failed to solve the black/white issue here.
I don't know. Some problems do not have solutions.
I know Europe can't take it alone. Anyone/any country who can help, should help. These people shouldn't just be left out to die, regardless of how difficult the situation is. There are children out there.
"Of course, everyone will claim they respect someone who tries to speak the truth, but in reality, this is a rare quality. Most respect those who speak truths they agree with, and their respect for the speaking only extends as far as their realm of personal agreement. It is less common, almost to the point of becoming a saintly virtue, that someone truly respects and loves the truth seeker, even when their conclusions differ wildly."
-walsh
-walsh