Shelter the Syrian refugees
It has become a frequent theme to see articles and pictures of innocent Syrian civilians affected by chemical weapons and or bombings rather than rebels or ISIS. One could question, isn’t the United States supposed to be in Syria to stop ISIS? It seems as if the United States is in Syria in order to maintain hegemony, dominance and pride.
The questioning of the United States’ presence in Syria will soon evolve to, “Why didn’t anybody help?” Civilians in Syria face terror and fear every day, and while they seek refuge in the states rather than military intervention, we are denying them shelter.
The United States chose to ignore the Rwandan genocide in 1994, and we are choosing to ignore the Syrian crisis now. As George Santayana once stated, “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
The United States should not ignore the fact that our military presence may be creating more harm than good. We can help Syria by maintaining our country’s doors open to Syrian refugees and by refraining from exerting military force. Is maintaining dominance and pride more important than doing the ethically correct thing and helping Syrian civilians?
Natalie Gomez, Merced
This story was originally published May 11, 2017 at 3:51 PM with the headline "Shelter the Syrian refugees."