Save more Syrians
President Trump promises Syrian dictator Bashar Assad will pay a heavy price for what Trump correctly calls an “atrocious” chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of innocent people, including children, in a town outside Damascus. As welcome as forceful military retaliation against “Animal Assad” will be, there’s no guarantee it will alleviate a single Syrian’s suffering.
A simpler nonmilitary step would pay far larger dividends in that respect. And it’s one Trump is loath to take.
Over more than five years, as a brutal civil war has left a half-million Syrians dead, two American Presidents have toyed with using the military to punish the Assad regime for chemical attacks.
President Obama’s August 2013 push to hit Assad after a series of heinous chemical strikes — which imploded after Obama feebly flinched, asking Congress for permission — emboldened Assad.
Then there was the April 2017 Trump-ordered American strike, via Tomahawk cruise missiles, on the Shayrat air base, in reaction to another inhumane chemical attack.
Conclusion: Inaction does not stop Assad’s brutality. Nor does modest military involvement.
Nor do the American people have the stomach for the protracted military engagement necessary to fatally wound Assad’s regime. That carries with it profound risks: of killing many Americans, of setting off a wider conflagration against Assad’s Russian and Iranian allies, of tying down the U.S. military in a volatile region for another decade.
Even if that were the right strategic choice, this commander-in-chief has made clear he has no intention of backsliding into another Mideast war.
“We spent $7 trillion in the Middle East. And you know what we have for it? Nothing,” he said late last month, while declaring he wants out of Syria as soon as humanly possible.
Trump’s uncertain trumpet cannot possibly lead troops into battle.
But his professed concern for the victims of Assad’s brutality should swiftly change something else about American policy: our cruel, collective refusal to accept more than the tiniest trickle of refugees fleeing the humanitarian disaster.
More than 5.6 million Syrians are registered as refugees. Six in ten are in Turkish camps or settlements; most of the rest are in Lebanon or Jordan.
In the face of this mass exodus from Assad’s barbarity, Trump has capped America’s refugee resettlement quota at 45,000, the lowest in history. Thus far this year, our nation of immigrants, historically a haven for victims of war-torn lands, has resettled fewer than 11,000 refugees. Forty-four of those — 44 — are from Syria. To justify the stinginess, Trump continues to vilify would-be refugees, women and children included, as imminent security threats. Ridiculous.
Commence the air strikes or missile launches over there. More importantly, pry open the golden door over here.