Conservatives talk a lot about American exceptionalism. That war, with the Assad regime’s use of not only chemical weapons but such “conventional” weapons as shrapnel-filled barrels dropped and exploded over villages, has been brutal in a way we can not really fathom.
Advertisement
First of all, let’s remember that as former Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland argued, adding 10,000 people to the 319 million Americans is like adding SIX (count ’em, SIX) people to a 32,000 person football stadium.
The world needs America to be America again. So now we the people have a clear choice. This is what we do and who we are. We’re the good guys. The Syrian refugee population is ripe for terrorist activity and we would simply be importing terror to our shores.
Doesn’t American exceptionalism demand that we lead where others have neither the will nor the courage? “That is why our energies must be focused on the design, adoption, and execution of a comprehensive strategy to hasten the end of the Syrian civil war and achieve the decisive and lasting defeat of ISIL. So, when the president postures about compassion, America’s a compassionate country, but we shouldn’t risk the safety and security of American citizens”. Do we want to be a welcoming nation that opens its arms to people from all over the world, and from all walks of life, or do we want to turn our backs on those in need, and restrict critical opportunities for engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers and scientists like Albert Einstein, who was, by the way, a refugee?
Closing our borders is surrendering our exceptional American values to the enemy.
One story is more terrifying than the next.
“But military action only goes so far, and we should also be anxious about giving ISIL the chance to say ‘I told you so.’ By shutting out Syrian refugees, ISIL can claim that Muslims are not welcome in the United States”.
The first reason why importing Syrian refugees is unsafe is obvious.
It’s a mistake to think that closing the door on Syrian refugees fleeing ISIS would in any way help to counter those murderers in Paris. CNN news states that his concern was the quality of America’s screening process. More than half a dozen security agencies are involved, for Heaven’s sake.
Our process for reviewing refugee applications is rigorous and effective. And so will overheated rhetoric about the threat posed by small numbers of Muslim refugees. There is no telling how many have infiltrated Europe or even America.
Today, the people the USA is admitting from places like Afghanistan and Iraq are in circumstances very similar to the Vietnamese we admitted after 1975. “Congress should support this move, as it would quell concerns about terrorism”.
A year ago, an ISIS smuggler gave an exclusive interview to BuzzFeed and said that ISIS operatives are taking advantage of Western nations’ generosity toward refugees to infiltrate Europe. Leaving them to roam country-less puts them in the precarious position of choosing between nothing and something. They’ve singled out this group of people for partisan gain.
Gratitude is a value common to fleeing refugees, folks.
Our character is being tested. We share our support for them as they work to find those responsible for the horrific acts of terror on Friday night, and we stand with them, resolute against these forces of evil that seek to destroy peace and prosperity in America and across the globe. And, please, no more political expediency or playing on fear, which does nothing but exacerbate it.
Advertisement
Bloomberg reports, “There was a real sense of frustration from all the governors that there is just a complete lack of transparency and communication coming from the federal government”, said one GOP state official who was on the call…
