Martin O'Malley Is Right: America Should Be Taking More Syrian Refugees

[Recursion]

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2015/09/martin-omalley-is-right-the-united-states-should-be-taking-more-syrian-refugees/404131/

This is my President

I haven’t been writing about Syria, either the horrific war of the past four years or the ongoing refugee crises, because it is one of many topics about which I feel I don’t know enough to offer useful comment.

But over the past two years, I have several times posted guest analyses from someone in a very good position to know: the distinguished international-affairs practitioner and scholar William Polk. In 2013 he offered a two-part background on why things had gone so tragically wrong in Syria, with a heavy emphasis on ramifications of the years-long drought. His accounts are here, the first and then the second; two subsequent Polk assessments are here and here.

Now I offer another guest perspective, on the consequences of ongoing war. It’s from Dr. Ramy Arnaout of MIT and Harvard Medical School, who is now at the Beth Israel Deaconess medical center in Boston. He describes himself, as you will see, as “a born-and-bred, die-hard New Englander who happens to be the child of Lebanese immigrants.” He argues that it’s time for the U.S. to move aggressively in making room for more of the people displaced by the horrors in Syria.

I agree. I’ll explain why after we hear from Dr. Arnaout. Then I’ll explain why I’m mentioning Martin O’Malley in the headline.

[elleng]

1. Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

These words welcomed millions. By our alchemy this “wretched refuse” helped spawn the Greatest Generation and powered the engine of the 20th century. The mantle of that legacy now falls to us. Syria’s huddled masses yearn not to breathe free—a luxury in war—but to breathe at all. Do the words with which we caption our defining monument not include these people? . . .

And why do I mention Martin O’Malley? Because, according to The Guardian, of the 4,000 (actually only 22) Republican and Democratic candidates for president who were asked, only O’Malley said unambiguously that the United States should make room for more people from Syria. . .

Martin O’Malley is right, and so is Ramy Arnaout. If the United States wants to “do something” about a humanitarian disaster, it can best help them, and help itself, by welcoming more of them here.