A limited welcome
Our view: U.S. plan to admit more Syrian refugees is a drop in the bucket
After months of dithering as Europe struggles to take in tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the war in their homeland, the U.S. finally agreed over the weekend to increase the number of refugees it would admit to this country for resettlement. The U.S. isn’t responsible for the brutal, three-sided civil conflict that has forced some 4 million Syrians to seek refuge outside their country. But it can no longer avoid addressing the crisis; not only is it the right thing to do on humanitarian and moral grounds, it’s also vital that the U.S. show the kind of principled leadership that the rest of the world can respect.
Secretary of State John Kerry said the U.S. will raise the number of refugees it accepts annually from around the world from 70,000 to 100,000 over the next two years, including some 10,000 Syrians the White House has proposed admitting next year. Given the hundreds of thousands of Syrians expected to arrive in the European Union this year alone, those numbers are a drop in the bucket. Compare our efforts to those of Germany, which is preparing to resettle at least 800,000 refugees by the end of the year. The U.S. could surely do better than the token increase it announced, but at least it’s a start.
Even so, the Obama administration already has come in for criticism by Republican members of Congress, who say that admitting more Syrian refugees increases the chances that terrorists affiliated with the Islamic State and other radical jihadist groups could gain entry. Mr. Kerry insists that won’t happen because of the extensive vetting process applicants for asylum will have to undergo, which can take up to 24 months to complete.
Moreover, we can’t close our border to tens of thousands of desperate people for fear that one or two of them might be dangerous. If we’ve learned anything since the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, it’s that the terrorist threat can come from any direction, and the only truly effective defense is constant vigilance. That wouldn’t change because a few thousand more Syrians are admitted to the country. And smart terrorists probably wouldn’t pose as Syrian refugees anyway, since they would know in advance they would be subject to more intense scrutiny simply because of where they claimed to be from.
Taking in more Syrian refugees is a humanitarian obligation the U.S. must share with its European allies by virtue of its being the world’s most powerful and wealthy nation and the fact that it has a vital stake in stabilizing one of the world’s most volatile regions. But increasing the U.S. quota of refugees won’t by itself solve the larger problem of the intractable conflict in Syria that is driving the exodus to Europe. For civilians trapped between the brutality of Syrian President Bashar Assad and the barbarism of ISIS and its allies, the country has become unlivable, and it’s likely to stay that way until the war there ends.
Bringing about a resolution of the Syrian conflict is the surest way to end Europe’s refugee crisis, and that’s what the U.S. should be working toward even as it offers asylum to the war’s victims. The Obama administration has taken a lot fire for seeking a political settlement among the warring parties with the assistance of Russia and Iran, who have been Mr. Assad’s strongest backers. Critics say that’s a waste of time because neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Kamenei can be trusted. But realistically, what are the alternatives?
Short of a massive ground invasion to topple the Assad regime and push ISIS back, there’s no obvious U.S. military option to resolve the Syrian conflict. Even a stepped-up U.S. effort to arm and train the so-called moderate Syrian opposition could easily backfire and leave the country worse off than it is now. At the very least, our efforts so far in that direction have proved wholly ineffective. Difficult as it may prove to be to work with Russia and Iran on the issue, at this point, a negotiated cease-fire may be the only practical way to stop the fighting and end Syria’s agony.