Should the U.S. assist in the Syrian Refugee Crisis? The nation of Syria has been in turmoil since its inception. From the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the martial law imposed on the land in 1963 to the rise of current totalitarian president Bashar al-Assad, Syria has been a center of conflict. As millions of people seek refuge wherever they might, the United States stands in the sidelines, debating what their role to play in the Syrian refugee crisis really is. The United States has always seeked to promote human rights and now is the time for them to model this. Further arguments will be made regarding the political correctness of assisting in the refugee crisis. It is imperative to first take a look at Syria throughout the modern ages.
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Once World War 1 came and the Ottoman Empire fell, France came in and conquered the lands known today as Syria. The French rule can be characterized as oppressive at best since the French attempted to assimilate Syrians into French culture and tried to undermine their local traditions and beliefs (Polk). Syrian independence was achieved in 1946 but it would not be until 1970, that strong leadership would take control. Before that time however, Syria went through repeated forms of governments and alliances, including being part of the United Arab Republic with Egypt, to see what was best for the people. Hafez al-Assad of the Baath party took control in 1970 much to the dissatisfaction of the Muslim Brotherhood (Polk). Assad brought about socialist ideas and put a lot of power in his hands with the new constitution in 1973. In 2000, he died and his son Bashar al-Assad assumed power under the Baath party. Assad has the same idealistic vision as his father of having a secular and robust Syria while still being totalitarian. The past decade has seen tensions elevate between other nations particularly the United States which has been at the front …show more content…
A perfect example would be Jewish refugees during World War 2. The public opinion of letting them in was only about 5% and a whopping 67% wanted to “keep them out” according to a Gallup Poll conducted in 1938 (Tharoor). Another Gallup poll in 1939 asked if 10,000 German-Jewish children should be allowed in and the results were equally staggering as 60% of those polled said “No” (Tharoor). It is important to note that the mass communication we have today such as social media did not exist back then and people did not yet know of the hardships these refugees underwent such as concentration camps. Even more so, the U.S. was just getting out of the Great Depression and makes sense most people may not have wanted refugees to come to the country (Tharoor). Now the spotlight is in Syria where as many as 10 million people have been displaced. Public opinion on them is negative as they are stigmatized for being muslim and therefore being terrorists. In the United States, the Republican party has been the harshest critic of these refugees calling them “terrorists” alluding to the Paris attacks in November 2015 where 8 members of the terrorist group ISIS launched attacks across the city (Faiola). It was reported one of them was posing as a Syrian refugee (Faiola). It was later discovered the passport was a fake and all 8 terrorists were actually European nationals (Faiola). But
Once World War 1 came and the Ottoman Empire fell, France came in and conquered the lands known today as Syria. The French rule can be characterized as oppressive at best since the French attempted to assimilate Syrians into French culture and tried to undermine their local traditions and beliefs (Polk). Syrian independence was achieved in 1946 but it would not be until 1970, that strong leadership would take control. Before that time however, Syria went through repeated forms of governments and alliances, including being part of the United Arab Republic with Egypt, to see what was best for the people. Hafez al-Assad of the Baath party took control in 1970 much to the dissatisfaction of the Muslim Brotherhood (Polk). Assad brought about socialist ideas and put a lot of power in his hands with the new constitution in 1973. In 2000, he died and his son Bashar al-Assad assumed power under the Baath party. Assad has the same idealistic vision as his father of having a secular and robust Syria while still being totalitarian. The past decade has seen tensions elevate between other nations particularly the United States which has been at the front …show more content…
A perfect example would be Jewish refugees during World War 2. The public opinion of letting them in was only about 5% and a whopping 67% wanted to “keep them out” according to a Gallup Poll conducted in 1938 (Tharoor). Another Gallup poll in 1939 asked if 10,000 German-Jewish children should be allowed in and the results were equally staggering as 60% of those polled said “No” (Tharoor). It is important to note that the mass communication we have today such as social media did not exist back then and people did not yet know of the hardships these refugees underwent such as concentration camps. Even more so, the U.S. was just getting out of the Great Depression and makes sense most people may not have wanted refugees to come to the country (Tharoor). Now the spotlight is in Syria where as many as 10 million people have been displaced. Public opinion on them is negative as they are stigmatized for being muslim and therefore being terrorists. In the United States, the Republican party has been the harshest critic of these refugees calling them “terrorists” alluding to the Paris attacks in November 2015 where 8 members of the terrorist group ISIS launched attacks across the city (Faiola). It was reported one of them was posing as a Syrian refugee (Faiola). It was later discovered the passport was a fake and all 8 terrorists were actually European nationals (Faiola). But