Governors all across the country are refusing to take Syrian refugees

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^ It had much more to do with a brutal and ruthless leader, Assad.

Obviously a strong factor. But it wouldn't be the first time in history that a dictator had lost his grip owing to a natural disaster, and it would be interesting to understand this, if true.

And, then slaughters millions of his people? Hmmm.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OK fine. we decide we can't take in refugees because we can't adequately screen them.

But I don't want to hear any more about us being a "Christina nation". Rejecting refugees is *not* what Jesus would do.

We have to decide to be OK with that. That we are going to be selfish, self interested, preemptively defend ourselves.... not Christlike.

Don't be hypocrites. Be honest. We are not truly Christian. We are selectively Christian. Cafeteria Christian.

I am agnostic. No refugees. We have enough shit going on. You are more than welcome to house and feed them at your home. You know, like Jesus would do.

Agree
And don't trot out the Christian line when it's convenient.

This sums it up. You don't get to call yourselves Christian, you are hypocrites.

I know I am getting off topic here, and I do agree that these people should be helped, but what I don't understand is why poor, desperate people around the world have so many kids they can't feed. It is really not fair to the kids to grow up without food and other basic resources. Perhaps the women just have no choice. Sad.

Most probably had no trouble feeding their children before the war, which was precipitated by a devastating, historic drought. (And this is why the military has been studying and planning for the effects of climate change.)

Interesting angle. Can you point to some background articles on the drought?

I read several articles about it last spring but did a quick Google search for "Syria drought war" and found a March National Geographic article that seems like a good summary. They cite an article about a new research study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The basic argument is that a massive drought beginning around 2006 led some 80,000 farmers to abandon their farms and move to the cities already stressed by population growth and refugees from the Iraq war. The resulting massive unemployment problem triggered civil unrest which was put down brutally by Assad. That was how the war began.

[Anonymous]

And here is a report from 2010 talking about the effects of a series of droughts on northeast Syria as recorded in a UN report.

Very interesting that the area most affected is where the ISIS stronghold is now--Raqqa is specifically mentioned as one of the three areas most devastated. Easy to visualize how ISIS could capture people there suffering from the effects of drought with their talk of an Islamic paradise.

http://www.irinnews.org/report/90442/syria-drought-pushing-millions-into-poverty

Oh, and if you Google you will find a Breitbart story from this year denying that the drought had anything to do with the crisis.

[jsteele]

We have a huge number of overlapping threads. So, I'm going to start locking few. Please join one that doesn't get locked.