Refugees

Dear Friends,

The news is full of reports about the humanitarian crisis caused by the war in Syria.  The calls for action are increasing every day.  Yet the responses are ludicrously inadequate.  Yesterday, President Obama announced that the United States would take 10,000 refugees next year, and he said it like it would make a difference.  It will, of course, make a difference for those 10,000 people, but it will do nothing to solve the humanitarian crisis the world is facing.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (here)

Wars, conflict and persecution have forced more people than at any other time since records began to flee their homes and seek refuge and safety elsewhere, according to a new report from the UN refugee agency.
UNHCR's annual Global Trends Report: World at War, released on Thursday (June 18), said that worldwide displacement was at the highest level ever recorded. It said the number of people forcibly displaced at the end of 2014 had risen to a staggering 59.5 million compared to 51.2 million a year earlier and 37.5 million a decade ago.

Recent reports say that the number is now over 60 million people.  Obviously resettlement is not a solution to this problem.  In the long term, ending war, violence, oppression and poverty is the only solution.  We need to let people live in peace and hope.

The current focus is on refugees from Syria who are fleeing in huge numbers.  The people of Syria are being killed, maimed and terrorized by their own government as well those opposed to the current government as well as ISIS, etc.  The United States response to this genocide has been pathetic.  I do not expect us to send ground troops, but we have the ability to enforce a no-fly zone but have refused to do so.

A recent article in The International Business Times (here) has a good analysis of the issues surrounding a no-fly zone.  The Telegraph published an op-ed piece by a representative of the Syria National Coalition (here) that argues convincingly for a no-fly zone.

A no-fly zone will stop the Syrian government from using barrel bombs to kill civilians, it should enable the establishment of safe zones where aid agencies can provide water, food and shelter.  I realize that Russia will probably continue to oppose any such actions, but we cannot sit by and continue to watch the genocide in Syria and force people to flee their homeland in violent and perilous conditions.  The world needs to stand up to bullies whether Bashar al-Assad, Putin, ISIL or any others.

President Obama needs to act.  We may not be successful, but we can no longer sit by and watch.  We need to give all the people displaced by war and violence around the world hope that the rest of world is not turning their backs on them.

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

Listen to Maureen Dowd

Dear Friends,

President Obama should take the advice of Maureen Dowd in her recent op-ed column in The New York Times entitled "A Modest Proposal" (here).  You should read the whole column but here is the proposal:

He gives a passionate address to the nation, channeling 2004 Obama, and asks, as the son of a foreigner who came to America to go to school, how our mosaic of immigrants soured into such a cruel place toward displaced children.
He defies the Republicans and shoots the moon on an executive order, giving backdoor amnesty to millions of undocumented Hispanic immigrants as well as all those suffering kids on the border who are afraid to live in their own violent countries.

How proud I would be of President Obama!!!

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal

President Obama's Mixed Messages

Dear Friends,

There have been a couple of items in the news that have made clear the mixed messages and double standards applied by President Obama (and I am afraid most Americans).

First, I and many others are awaiting the release of the long overdue Senate report on torture, rendition, etc. by the United States.  While President Obama has said on numerous occasions that torture is wrong and the United States was wrong when it did it and while on his second day in office he banned torture (who would have thought that we needed an executive order to ban torture), President Obama seems willing to permit the CIA to redact the Senate report so as to make a mockery of transparency.  For a great report on this issue, please read Mark Mazzetti's article in The New York Times (here).  The last paragraph of that article reads:

On Monday, Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, said that “it is important that a declassification process be carried out that protects sources and methods and other information that is critical to our national security.”

The White House misses the point, there needs to be a balance between transparency and national security and the CIA has proven over and over again that it is not the agency that should be doing the balancing.

But the real problem is that President Obama refuses to hold the ones who ordered the torture accountable for their illegal and immoral actions.  There is a great op-ed piece in The New York Times by retired Major General Taguba, the Army general who did the report on Abu Ghraib and was eventually forced to retire because he told the truth and believed in accountability (here).  In a true understatement he writes, "accountability for the architects of torture has proved elusive".

The message being sent by President Obama is very clear to future leaders, political, military and CIA, that even if you do things that are clearly illegal and immoral you do not have to worry about being held accountable either by open disclosure of what you did or prosecution for the war and other crimes that you committed.

Second, President Obama continues to deport and try to deport unaccompanied minors and parents with children who are fleeing violence, poverty and death in Central America.  These people are refugees many of whom are entitled to asylum under our laws and certainly our values.  Yet despite his statements about due process, President Obama continues to fast track deportation without giving these refugees appropriate legal representation or due process.

Just as I was embarrassed to be an American when President George W. Bush was torturing and rendering people, I am embarrassed that today in my name, President Obama is sending child refugees back to Central America to face violence and in many cases death.  I commend to you an article in The New York Times by Julia Preston (here).  It is a heartbreaking account that saddens me to think that our country and this President could be so heartless.

The White House has said over and over again that its heartless behavior is necessary to send a message to other children and parents in Central America that they should not make the treacherous journey to the United States to save their lives because they will be sent right back.

So the two messages that President Obama is sending are contradictory and despicable.  If you are a powerful United States President or other leader, feel free to break the law with impunity, but if you are a child refugee fleeing Central America to save your life, stay home and die because there is no room for you in the United States.

What has happened to the country I love?

Thanks for reading and please comment,
The Unabashed Liberal