President Obama blew it. President Trump did, too. Now, we’re going to catch it. Bad.
5
What happens when the corona virus strikes in Idlib?
3
It is not "Syrian government assault on rebel-held province". It is liberation of sovereign Syrian territory from foreign and domestic terrorists. The terrorist holding Idlib illegally should just leave or surrender and there would be no fighting and no deaths. The terrorists are responsible for all that suffering - it is on them. By liberating all of Syria the government aims to put an end to war and the killings. Those who have influence with the terrorists should try to convince them to stop their useless violence. Syrian people suffered enough.
4
Ummurica will only involve itself in a foreign conflict if Houston oil executives can make money from it. There's scarcely any petroleum in that part of western Asia therefore no interest. Ummurica is too busy worrying about Justin Timberlake, the late Luke Perry and other plastic fantastic things to care about anything outside the realm of one's smart phone screen.
6
Your story is, in one sense, a condemnation of all of us....citizens, nations, leaders...who ignore the suffering of others for our own comforts. I once thought that the UN could serve to temper the evils of war and dictators but the great powers have made it useless. I once thought that the grand alliances...NATO, SEATO, etc.... might offer resistance to the persecutors but the alliances have been fractured. I once thought that Christianity could provide a motivation to help and assist the suffering but prejudices and the stoking of irrational fears have tempered beliefs in the Gospels.
6
The U.S. needs to stay far away from Idlib. The people of Idlib were only too glad to play host to al-Baghdadi, the late head of ISIS. Al-Qaida and other extremist Islamist terrorist groups. Years ago, the U.S. tried to help the so-called Moderate Rebel militias, they sold their weapons to the highest bidder, or simply gave them to the worst of the Islamist groups. Every step of the way, the people of Idlib have made the worst possible decisions....short-sighted, benighted, corrupt. The men of Idlib richly deserve their fate. Of course, the Children are innocent, as are most of the Women and the Elderly. It's a shame that civilians are enduring hardship, but it makes no sense for the U.S. to intervene in a country that is a client state of Russia, in a region that abuts the border with Turkey. Let Turkey and Russia hash this out. I frankly lost most of my concern for events in Syria when the Kurdish enclaves of Afrin and Rojava were tossed aside and betrayed by the callous and feckless Trump Administration. In marked contrast to the Idlib rebels, the Syrian Kurds were a reliable ally of the U.S. The real problem of the Idlib Militant groups is that their fighters shied away from opportunities to engage in close combat with the forces of the Assad regime. Instead, they exhibited the propensity to shelter amongst the very civilians that they purport to protect-- effectively using these people as "human shields", and leading to the reduction of these towns and villages.
3
This is absolutely wrong! People do care. People are traumatized by these images. Some are so traumatized that their only reaction is to stop looking. Because we feel so utterly powerless. We can give some money to charities maybe, but really we know that we cannot fix the core problem. We would if we could.
The core problem is that Syria is a pawn in a game of global politics, and the Syrian people are just innocent victims, caught in the crossfire.
It is the kind of situation that the UN was created to deal with, but which the UN is totally incompetent to deal with because it is basically a politicians back-slapping club where nobody has any actual power over any of the 5 permanent members of the security council.
Except that we suspect it's even worse than that. It's not just that the US and Russia cannot find a peaceful compromise, but rather that they do not want to. It feels like it suits Messers Trump, Putin and Xi to have these conflicts raging around the world, whether to distract from the problems at home or to provide markets for their arms-industry cronies and mercenary supporters.
Of course we can (and MUST) get rid of the corrupt cynic in the White House today, but even then there isn't much we can do about Putin or Xi, who'd happily sacrifice millions.
To say that we don't care is like saying we don't care that we're going to die one day. It's not that. It's that some things are so terrible and so hopeless that we just avoid thinking about them ...
13
I do care about this situation very much. I don’t know what I can do to help... Any helpful information is appreciated.
8
"More than a million civilians from all parts of Syria have done the same thing, many having already moved multiple times. They have doubled Idlib’s population, turning it into a crowded stew of transplanted dissidents and their families and an array of jihadist and rebel groups who exploited the chaos to seize political control."
This quote above from the story tells you what is going on there.
3
“I dream about being warm,” Iman’s father, Ahmad Yassin Leila, said a few days later by phone. “I just want my children to feel warm. I don’t want to lose them to the cold. I don’t want anything except a house with windows that keeps out the cold and the wind.”
That's all most of us want; that and freedom from fear and hunger! When I read an article like this,I recall my Mother's voice saying "There but for the grace of God, go I."
What does it say about the human race, when hospitals become targets to instill the maximum amount of fear and the sense your not safe anywhere?
8
The bombing of hospital and buildings that kill civilians is a war crime. Denting people there rights to participant in their own government is a human rights violation. The current virus has taught humanity one of meany lessons. We are one body, and if there is trouble in one part of the world there is trouble on all sides. Putin and Assad are of retirement age.
2
The people of Syria were misled by the support by NATO and the US for Sunni piety and the promise of a anti-Shia Caliphate of the pious. As the cost of removing Assad rose the West, always careful of their money, left the scene.
Only the pious Islamist state of Turkey is still actively in this NATO project and the NATO countries are contemplating helping. It will have to be a clear decision by NATO to give the jihadists a Caliphate free from the hated Shia rejectionists at the cost of destroying planet Earth by taking on Russia full on in armed combat. I recommend drop the hate project for peace. Make peace not war.
1
The humanitarian crisis is about to get much worse for the refugees once the coronavirus hits the refugee camps. Poor living conditions and almost no access to the healthcare conditions necessary to fight the virus, we can expect 12-15% mortality rates within these camps, and no one seems to be discussing what to do?
1
Sometimes I feel that I should stop reading the news. It is much better than reading it and then crying.
I feel like whatever I will do it won’t be enough even if I sell myself it won’t be enough.
World is such a bad place. If I keep reading news like this, then I am not far from depression.
Please let me know a good organization where I can contribute to help these people.
3
One wonders if Putin’s support for Assad ties in to his desire to destabilise Europe. The tide of refugees to the EU was stemmed somewhat by the Turkey/EU agreement but now another million souls have been pushed to the edge and Turkey can no longer absorb them.
Hard to believe what these last few years have wrought.
Hard to believe that we can carry on as normal while this happens.
11
We as progressives need to ask our candidates to boldly step forward, and propose bringing these poor women and children here - to the United States.
The cowards will dodge it. But the True Progressives will embrace this policy even though it may not “poll” well with masses of ignorant and heartless deplorable voters in flyover country.
I realize that many of the civilians in Idlib Province were trafficking slaves, spreading propaganda, and murdering Shia, Yazidi, and moderate Sunni who opposed them. But this was at least two years ago! They thought they were winning at the time! So much has changed. Therefore, we need to forgive them and re-embrace them.
Will some of these refugees eventually lash out and harm innocent American civilians? Of course they will! But it will be a small minority, just like the small minority of former refugee and asylum grantees who went on to place bombs at the Boston Marathon, who went on to shoot up the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, who went on to attack an office party in San Bernardino, and who went on to open fire on a military recruiting center in Chattanooga. The total death toll inflicted by these former beneficiaries of our big hearts was well less than 200 - which is a drop in the bucket. More people die by slipping in the bathtub!
A True Progressive will have the courage to point all of this out. He or she will propose bringing these poor souls here. Rejecting these refugees is Not Who We Are!
6
If Assad is battling rebels and Islamic State and other jihadist make up Syrian ‘rebels’ and US backs ‘rebels,’ then, .......
1
Watch the academy award-nominated documentary "The Cave". Unimaginable government depravity, and the UN just writes a report!
7
And why exactly is this our problem?
10
Because we are human beings.
14
Because we are humans.
13
@Jeremy Coney It's not. Throughout the bombings & total destruction of their country the Syrian populace reproduce, having more & more children born to suffer. Mr. Leila saw the handwriting on the wall nine years ago when he joined protests which erupted into armed uprising & war yet he holds his infant & says nobody cares that she will freeze to death. The war has been destroying his habitat for years, what is he doing bringing an infant into such a situation? Crazy.
2
Problems are well documented. I wish writer as well as EU and USA were little more pragmatic. Even no-one in NYT likes Erdogan, he still has best solution for the existing mess. He has been promoting safe zone between Turkey and Idlib for years now, its the time swallow the pride and agree with him to create a safe zone for million of refugees in Syria next to Turkish border. Its sad to know USA and EU spends more for their pet food than existing refugee programs, its more sad also know that people donate for sick looking cats and dogs after watching TV ads and not doing anything for dying Syrian kids by millions, I wonder if Merkel and Macron are watching this train wreck in slow motion as usual. I am sure Trump doesn't have mercy to share with them even he was forced to watch but EU should do something soon. Turkey spent close to $30 billions for existing 4 million refugees. Its the time to EU step up and do the job. Macron, Merkel other free world leaders are you guys sleeping on wheels as usual?
5
A human community that fails to find a way to do something effective about this is not worthy of being called human.
12
the Taleban, a mortal malefactor, Sunni Islamic fundamentalist political movement and military organization that refers to itself as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan; as the non-monolithic terror group that the immediate above factors have indisputably proved the Taliban to be is attempting to reaffirm or solidify the supremacy of its long barbaric rule; that it is supreme to none others; the more likely will the practice of terrorism, principally the Prophet Muhammad’s disease, becomes a reaction to lethal terror conditions (as hard to believe bloodletting also continues to potentially fuel so) in that Middle Eastern corner of the world; and overall, Afghanistan becomes an unmatched “infernal of Prophet Muhammad’s cruelties.”
2
Ahmad, I have no idea if you will ever see this but if you do please know that my heart is yours today, yours and your beautiful child Iman. The horror has brought you to such a place is beyond me, perhaps one day they will be beyond us all.
11
Somebody please explain to me why Dr. al-Assad is still alive.
Surely the Israelis or somebody else could have arranged for this.
5
@A. Stanton
You like the assassination of world leaders as a solution?
Assad did not ask the US to arm dissidents and urge them to instigate a civil war because the US wanted Assad ousted, and replaced with someone more subservient to US "national interests".
The US has never cared about the well being of Syrians.
Before the US destabilized Syria and armed dissidents, urging them to instigate a civil war with the purpose of ousting Assad, Syria was not only a well functioning society, but secular, with the Assad government promoting tolerance among the many ethnicities and religions, and with women in government and all professions. Admittedly, Assad was harsh in dealing with the always restless Sunni Islamists, who were always encouraged by the US to rise against Assad.
The US is responsible for this tragedy.
3
@A. Stanton, Lavrov and Kerry would explain that by destroying Assad’s chemical weapons the snake would have no venom therefore harmless by their definition. Turns of Assad is boa constrictor but they at least they and Obama got to claim a momentary diplomatic success. Who says kicking cans isn’t effective.
1
"...peaceful protests against the brutal authoritarianism of President Bashar al-Assad, which erupted into armed uprising and war." Substitute Trump for Bashar al-Assad, and ask if it can happen here. When will some of us, if not all of us, flee for safety after brutality from our own government? When is it time to give up on peaceful protest and resort to armed uprising? Will it be by Trump supporters if he is defeated, or by those who refuse to accept another four years of Trump? Syrian suffering echos across the globe; it is ours.
3
This war is a Byzantine mess. It is not just Russia / Turkey. Other players include Hizbollah of Lebanon. This is a regional problem that can only be solved by getting rid of all the corrupt, well-established political elite, who have been filling their Swiss and American bank accounts for generations. Take away political privilege and position as a path to wealth. Political leaders are servants of the people, not vice versa.
4
Every candidate will be criticized over some facet of her record if he has any record at all. So, among the full gallery of Democratic candidates we have the sins of:
1. stop and frisk, or
2. local police overreaction, or
3. cozying up to Fidel, or
4. executive inexperience, or
5. off-color jokes, or
6. buying a private prison company, or
7. voting to wage war with Iraq, or
8. failing to meet a purity test, or
9. something, or
10. something else again.
Full disclosure here; I have stuff in my past I'd rather forget. Fuller disclosure; so do you whether you know it or not.
Considering all of the above, every one of the Democratic presidential candidates is still more fit to serve that the incumbent who, for no apparent reason, daily heaps outrage upon outrage.
7
“They have doubled Idlib’s population, turning it into a crowded stew of transplanted dissidents and their families and an array of jihadist and rebel groups who exploited the chaos to seize political control.
“These groups — dominated by the Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — have given the Syrian government cover to justify its onslaught in the name of counterterrorism.”
You are right. The regime should stay the heck out and end the suffering. Al Qaeda are definitely preferable to the regime.
2
Vivian Yee and Hwaida Saad deserve credit for informing the world about such a sad situation, and explaining the political forces that generated it.
While various commenters here blame different political actors, whether Assad, Putin, Trump, Obama, the Iranian or Saudi governments, apparently this horror is due to government related violence.
In the previous century, its violence killed hundreds of millions. Evidently, it isn't done with killing people, especially these most vulnerable children.
5
If Trump abandoned the Kurds, the Puerto Ricans who can not offer Trump their vote do you think he even looks at these pictures. If he did he would criticize how the build a tent.
Whose boat is this?
Remember the California fires of 2018, he showed up and he forgot the name of the city and like his virus ignorance and sole pre-occupation of getting re-elected — he told the State of California residents to rake the Forests.
Trump will do nothing.
2
The culprit is not Bashar al-Assad. The culprit is population growth.
Here is the number to remember: .693147 is the natural logarithm of two.
At one percent instantaneous growth per annum, it takes 69.3147 years for the population to double. If the population is growing at 3% per annum it will double every 23.1049 years.
Every 23 years every farm must be divided into two. This can go on for several generations, but it must come to an end. It is mathematically impossible for such growth to continue in a finite patch of land, such as Syria.
Syria had 3% growth for decades. Then fighting broke out. There is always a proximate cause. Warring faction will blame the other side. Yes, Assad used chemical weapons on his own people, but people do crazy things when it comes to survival.
Syria's population was a little over 3 million in 1950 and increased to a bit over 21 million in 2011. Wars have brought the population down.
Here is the mathematics that must be confronted.
If you don't use birth control, shortages will increase the death rate bringing population down to a sustainable size.
And there a hundred potential Syria's around the globe. Not only that but the population growth on planet earth has set us on the trajectory of global warming.
You should ask: What good is it for us all to buy Teslas if we neglect population growth?
I would say it is hopeless to pretend to address global warming without also seeking zero population growth.
18
Your callous comment is just plain wrong. Bashar al-Assad is directly responsible for committing war crimes against his own people. And Iran and Russia helped him do it. The U.S. and other Western countries only got involved in Syria to kill ISIS. They did not care about the genocide that continues to occur there today or the fact that Syrian civilians/refugees have had to flee time and time again with nothing but the clothes on their back. And Western countries still refuse to provide meaningful assistance to end this nine-year nightmare. The original peaceful protesters only wanted to be treated with dignity and respect. So, I’m not sure why your focus is on population control.
6
No, culprit #1 is Bashar al-Assad; culprit #2 is Vladimir Putin; culprit #3 is the human community that lets this happen, It is barbaric. It is without any remediating excuse.
5
Not one mention of Obama and his part in the making of this tragedy.
This is a civil war. How do you expect things to turn out? Should the US guarantee a haven area for the rebels?
Will Vivian Yee, the NYT's OP-ED writers encourage their children or grandchildren to join the US military and fight for the rebels in Syria?
No need to answer that last question.
8
Let's just call things the way they are:
Nobody wants to help Syrians because they conflate helping a predominantly Sunni Muslim population against a dictator with helping Islamic Fundamentalists. Assaad and Russian backed media portrayals along with Western media biases have exacerbated the tendency to confuse legitimate opposition to Assaad with ISIS.
When protests first began against Assaad, they were overwhelmingly peaceful with Syrians demanding a civil, democratic state. Assaad manipulated the situation by attacking the civil opposition while letting the Islamist extremists run wild. Later on, as civil opposition morphed into armed opposition, Assaad would coordinate with ISIS, attacking armed syrian groups from the air while extremists like Jubhat Al Nusra and ISIS attacked on the ground. Meanwhile, foreign sponsors such as Qatar, UAE and Turkey withdrew support from various Syrian opposition groups at the behest of the United States. Once the Russians intervened, whatever was left of the original movement to oust Assaad was eventually annihilated, leaving only ISIS and other extremist groups in its wake.
This is as brief a summary as possible. If you would like to learn more, then please read 'Assad or we burn the country', by Sam Dagher. Anyone who tells you that it's either Asaad or ISIS has been successfully mainpulated by Russian and Syrian internet trolls.
6
When the Armenians were fleeing Turkey to escape the genocide, my grandfather ended up in Syria. He said the Syrians were welcoming and that they were the kindest people.
Guess the world couldn’t return the favor in their time of desperation.
8
Trump is constantly talking about the U.S. having "the strongest economy in the world." He's right, though that descriptive long pre-dates his tenure.
Russia, on the other hand, is a petrochemical dump with a third-world economy and virtually no manufacturing base.
The U.S. has the chance to use its economic power in a redemptive way. Sanctions on top of sanctions. No loopholes. And the pressure continues until there is permanent relief for those suffering in NW Syria.
We have lost our moral compass. Want to MAGA? Here's a good starting point.
6
@Jackson They're loose. They have loophole on top of loophole. Trump is not vey supportive of them. And they don't hit Putin where it hurts.
2
Myles Caggins was the US Army Col. who spoke about other forces besides Russia and Syria at work in Idlib last week. I think its important to realize its not just Syria and Russia causing the strife.
2
A heart wrenching story, but I must have missed the part about our involvement in this travesty, back in 2013 the CIA was training an anti Assad group to help overthrow Assad, supposedly shut down when it was discovered that over $500,000,000.00 of our tax dollars had been spent to “ train” 60 people: the possibility of that seems ludicrous it’s much more likely that that money was spent on bribes to payoff different factions within the government to overthrow Assad. This was after the 2011 Arab Spring in which Tunisia and Egypt were successful, for Egypt it was a momentary victory, shortly after their free election we initiated a coup, jailed their duly elected President and murdered his supporters, ridding Israel of a possible threat from Morsi and inserted Al Sisi, denying the will of the people and giving them instead another dictator friendly to Israel, Mubarak II in other words. There is also no mention of the involvement of Saudi Arabia, big bucks I am sure, those Saudi Princes don’t actually do the dirty work themselves, but Kushner and Trump just love Egypts new dictator Al Sisi and of course MBS is BFF to Jared. We can blame this on religious wars all day long, there is truth in that but at the end of the day the money to support these wars comes from U.S. taxpayers and Saudi coffers to protect Israel and the Saudis while destroying everything else in the region. The time is long overdue for us to stay out of or often start Middle East conflicts.
7
How gruesome is this world, especially looking through the eyes of an infant, a child! This brings me to tears every single time...whether it's the US-Mexico border or the Syrian disaster, why should the children pay for the sins of the adults? How cruel it is that an innocent child dies of hunger, cold, neglect? How heartbreaking is it for the helpless and distraught parents who are unable to save their little ones? All avoidable and solvable issues, if only the leaders have the intent and will to do the right thing. Thank you NYT for such moving articles and images!
7
According to news Israel has bombed Syria over 200 times and the US and EU have sanctions and an embargo on Syria. Instead of pushing for peace, weapons are being provided to al Qaeda linked rebels that keeps this regime change war going. And very little is ever mentioned about what has happened to Christian groups in Syria. If you really want to help, push for peace.
5
This is the brutal history we read from WWII and the Chinese flight from famine. There is no excuse for this, and sad to put them together in a sentence but I blame both Obama and Trump for letting Russia get the upper hand.
3
There are empty houses across the mid-west as tiny towns literally die off and young move to larger towns or cities for what they perceive as better options.
I'd very much LOVE to host a family and place them in a house I've got. Every time I try to find how to really help refugees it's all about a money donations and for all that, the problem continues. I'm not so well off.
Something real such as housing people in the thousands of empty houses across the center of the nation is what I'd like to see. We would benefit from growing the farm town populations and these folks would benefit for having a REAL home to live in so their babes didn't freeze to death.
11
Heartbreaking suffering.
Obama and Hillary chose to intervene in Syria.
Was it to overthrow a brutal authoritarian who is an adversary of the U.S.?
Was it to push back against Iranian influence in the region?
Was it to facilitate the building of a natural gas pipeline?
For the dead children and their families, the reasons don't really matter.
5
Hey at least they tried. I don’t see or hear of anyone in the US government now even mentioning Syria. Disgraceful.
2
@MG
They tried??
To do what, break apart a functioning country?
They created a humanitarian disaster for others to clean up.
1
"But it is still so cold that they cannot sleep."
One time, one time when I was little, we had no heat in our farm house on a January night. We had blankets, but I was still cold. I could see my breath when I spoke. I could not sleep.
I remember that night like it was yesterday. I cannot fathom how any one could live, much less survive what these families are forced to content with.
"dreaming about being warm".
Such cruelty. Those who suffer the most always seems to be children and their parents.
This was an incredibly difficult and painful story to read. But it is imperative for the NYT to continue it's coverage of this situation.
“There are a lot of other people dying,” Mr. Leila said. “Nobody cares.” What I won't give to prove that statement wrong.
17
What is happening in Syria is truly a tragedy. But this was never a civil war. The CIA recruited terrorists from the Kurdish PKK to fight this war. This is not an exaggeration. The Kurdish PKK is listed with the US Department of Homeland Security as a terrorist organization. If Trump's various crimes are worth investigating, how about a crime that has led to so much death, and so much suffering of innocent people, as this article makes clear. If ever a CIA dirty war needed to be investigated, Syria is it.
4
I have no rational analysis of these tragedies. Life as cruel as it gets. I wish I could just open my home and my arms to these kids and their families. At night, I look at my son, warm and healthy in his crib, and I am so grateful for my good fortune. And I can't hold back the tears. We donate (to IRC mostly) and hope it helps just a little.
9
Since the countries surrounding Syria don't seem to be doing much about this crisis, perhaps America can shift the $3 billion we give to Israel every year to aid groups that might help these refugees...
18
Meanwhile, most of the rest of the world willfully ignores this ongoing tragedy. This is a classic example of world powers creating a "mess" and then turning their backs during another dark moment. God help those people because too many people with the resources, power and influence have turned their backs ... willful ignorance.
11
For the many knee- jerk readers who place the blame for this tragedy on Trump, he’s surely responsible for many tragedies but not this one. This is very much on the shoulders of Obama, who could have - and should have - prevented this when he promised he would. The feckless and cowardly foreign policy of the Obama administration will go down in history as among his greatest weaknesses, long after the man’s smooth speech and amicable nature are long forgotten. Best couple in the White House perhaps, but our weakest president since Carter on the world stage.
8
Really? Obama's worse than W? I'm not sure if I agree.
1
I was really struck by the picture of the young man with his daughter. He could be a student at my local university and I feel compassion for him
6
Assad was enabled by Iran , why is Iran not pressuring Assad to stop this?
1
This tragedy is certainly something to think about before we promote rebellion or start a war elsewhere. What is interesting though is how we show concern for the trauma to civilians living in or near combat zones when our own military or our allies are not directly responsible but ignore the issue when they are. Where was the similar reporting during the Iraq war when civilian casualties were seemingly deliberately ignored. And just think of what it must be like for generations of Palestinians who have been choked off from the world for many decades now.
8
This is the result of the US push for regime change Let's be honest...the Obama/Clinton mantra was all about ousting Assad, so they funded al-Qaeda affiliated jihadis to carry out their mission. Thousands of them were given free passage thru Turkey. All of these innocent people were living decent lives before this was brought upon them. Syria had been Russia's ally for many decades...so what? The US had and has no business being there, trying to manipulate the political landscape and force a new regime with a hard core religious bent upon Syria. The hands of Saudi Arabia are also in the background, which cannot be overlooked.
11
While billionaires throw their money into campaigns for power and glory. While presidents golf on taxpayers’ money. While halftime super bowl advertising dollars create an illusion that life is good.
13
Children are a more complicated concern. However, the crisis appears to be one of distribution rather than weather.
You're telling me you've never slept in the open in air in sub-20-degree weather before? I don't find it credible that 10 year refugees of the Syrian crisis don't know how to sleep in the cold. They simply lack the supplies to do so safely.
A tent is perfectly well and nice. Any wind break without significant conductive heat loss will help your chances. I'd be begging for a warm sleeping bag first though. A tarp, cord, and some decent stakes couldn't hurt. A trenching tool is always nice. More useful too.
Quite frankly though, you're doomed without adequate water, fuel, and calories. You're running on a caloric deficit just breathing. You need calories to keep you warm. Calories generally require cooking. No fuel, no calories, no warmth. Death is the only possible long term outcome.
Organizations are apparently inadequately prepared to deliver these essential resources. Hence, we have a crisis. Not of weather. There's plenty of rice and water and fuel to go around. We have a crisis of distribution. We don't know how to safely deliver the supplies to refugees.
5
People are suffering horribly. But why?
It is caused by the regime change project that fed this war.
That created the rebels, it made them refugees who fled the government into one remaining province. Now it has them trying to hold one rebel province against the government and all its allies, yet also unwelcome to its former allies.
Many have fed war in Syria, and they all blame the others who fight their own violent efforts.
Make peace. Stop trying to change the regime. That failed. Save the people instead.
9
Just a reminder that the protests in Syria began peacefully. People wanted democracy after 40 years of Assad family rule. It was Assad who initiated the violence against his people that turned the conflict into a civil war. Interventions from Iran, Turkey, ISIS, UAE, & other regional powers, who all have an interest in who governs Syria, turned the conflict into a proxy war. US aid to rebels in the early years was not the primary driver of the disaster we see today. The only solution is diplomatic. We may have to hold our nose and let that monster, Assad stay in power in exchange for a ceasefire and peace talks.
3
@Mark Thomason You truly relish that outsider pose, don't you? You think that only the bourgeoisie, the imperialists, the neoconservatives, the fools, the corporatists, and so forth, can believe the canned media narrative about this war. You, on the other hand, are far too sophisticated, too subtle a thinker to buy into their canard. Or that's the pose.
If one looks -- as one must -- at the way the conflict began, mostly peaceful protests were violently put down, bringing about an uprising that spread across Syria. No matter what you say, that's what happened. And starvation tactics have been employed, as has mass rape, gruesome torture, and intentional air attacks on bakeries and hospitals. We've witnessed the construction of crematoria and a mass exodus that deformed European politics. Not to worry. Your worldview is becoming the norm, which means you'll have to change it: You're constitutionally incapable of holding conventional opinions, even if they're correct.
In the real world, regime change is occasionally necessary, even if its results are ALWAYS unpredictable. The only world worse than the one in which warmongering capitalist imperialists are in charge, is one in which socialist anti-interventionists are in charge. I'm waiting with 'bated breath for the day when Mark Thomason calls for the employment of our military for ANYTHING, or doesn't side with the world's worst regimes over one of the world's best. Bernie Sanders sets in motion a worse world than Wolfowitz.
2
@LizziemaeF -- They did start peacefully. And very early on they were publicly complaining that the fighting would stop if the US failed to supply weapons. For eight years and more, the US sent in weapons. Always it was to do regime change. All it has done is cause this suffering. If was a mistaken policy. It was by the way Hillary's policy.
3
NY Times how can we help? Please include details of legitimate charities that can help ease the suffering of these people. Babies should not die of exposure.
19
Just Pure Evil.
Putin, Assad, Trump...this is their legacy. Let the history books record how these 3 men abandoned thousands of helpless families and children in that region.
17
Yeah, time for a regime change. Will you encourage your children or grandchildren to join the military and fight for it?
It's a civil war in which we meddled and made things worse.
Russia has been a long time ally of Syria. The US talks about "red lines in the sand".
But you got to mention Trump, so there's that.
4
You are clearly lacking in an understanding of this situation... I’m no fan of Trump, but this is not his legacy. That burden belongs on the shoulders of Obama, who could have - and should have - prevented this when he promised he would.
7
@Dorothy:
It would almost be okay if they just "abandoned thousands of helpless families and children in that region"; after all there are others who would and are trying to help them. But the war criminals Assad and Putin are deliberately killing them!
If there were such a thing as justice in this world, both of them should be indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
4
The Times is right to publicize these events, but we've long seen the limits of human compassion for Syrian refugees. Most people seem actively not to want to know what is happening, and to become hostile if forced to pay attention. Thanks to the direct and indirect effects of climate change, we can expect to see many more, and even bigger, refugee emergencies (indeed, we already should keep in mind the especially large number of refugees in eastern Congo, which the rest of the world largely has censored out of its consciousness). We're proving that the word "humane" is a joke.
7
@Stephen Merritt What would be inhumane would be letting these people in to developed countries.
2
There is a book by David Benatar
"The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life's Biggest Questions" I read recently.
The thesis is that by bringing another human into the world you are essentially doing great harm and perpetuating suffering. And finally, from a cosmic perspective, life on earth is meaningless. It's a good sobering read. My mother, now in her late 80s, was a child refugee in occupied France, her father fought in the Great War. During WWII humans led other humans into gas chambers. Life's horrors will go on and on to the very end. When I see photos like this I feel a lot of shame, a lot of guilt, and utterly helpless with what I can do. I certainly can't depend on the leaders I have in my country (USA) to do anything of value about anything.
14
Nihilism is not the answer to these kinds of questions
1
The reason this war has dragged on for so long is because NATO countries and its allies like regimes in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Ukraine has been providing weapons to the al Qaeda affiliated terrorists. The so called rebels were about to be defeated by Syrian Government troops in 2013/ 2014. At that time the death toll was not that huge. It was then these countries came to the rescue of ‘rebels’ and provided them with weapons and training. As a result of this the ‘rebellion’ continued. Other countries should never have interfered in the first place to what was purely an internal matter. The war escalated and caused hundreds of thousands of death because the west provided the weapons enabling the ‘rebels’ to continue the war and cause untold deaths. So instead of providing more suppor t to Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists force them to surrender and save lives.
7
Please let us know how we can help the people you've featured in your article today. Seeing children die of cold in today's age of many advancements breaks my heart.
10
I was deeply disappointed and frankly disgusted by Mayor Pete and Senator Warren’s dismissive responses to last night’s debate question regarding the humanitarian catastrophe that continues to unfold in Idlib province, especially Pete’s pivot back to attacking Senator Sanders on Medicare for All. The entire world, especially our so-called leaders, should be deeply ashamed for turning their backs on the unimaginable never-ending suffering/genocide of the Syrian people by Bashar al-Assad and and his principal benefactor Vladimir Putin. Turkey must also be willing to accept more Syrian refugees into their country. Otherwise, the entire civilian population in Idlib will die in Russian air assaults or be tortured to death in the Syrian government’s notorious detention centers. We must do more to help them stay alive.
14
This mass exodus and the deaths of these children are the direct result of the American withdrawal.
Mr. Trump is responsible for almost a million Syrians being displaced. I understand that it is costly and dangerous to maintain our troops especially near Turkey and Syria. But, it prevented catastrophic events like this.
The Syrians who are fleeing should not be pawns in a game between Russia, Turkey, Assad, and the United States.
Put our troops back in and help these people. Restore our honor. Trump has disgraced and embarrassed us....and caused the deaths of these children as well many other Syrians.
6
@Jack Frost "Mr. Trump is responsible for almost a million Syrians being displaced."
No, this massive displacement was set in motion (way before Trump) on account of multiple factors, including religious and ethnic sectarianism, along with U.S. and other foreign military intervention.
Trump's predecessors, Obama included, are to blame.
14
Syria needs the world to help.
Where is the US? I want my tax dollars to be put to use, to help put an end to this humanitarian crisis immediately.
5
@Susie Ask Obama. This civil war was on his watch. He could have easily helped rid the world if this brutal dictator but he didn’t. Thanks.
7
Syria needs the world to help? To defeat the rebels? This is a civil war in which the US has no business meddling.
2
Well Obama drew the RedLine and then did nothing, Trump and the rest of the West have followed his lead.
It is absolutely shameful that there can’t be a resolution to this suffering!
7
Unfathomable-children? Children Freezing to Death? Where is Humanity? If I lived near there, I would do anything to help those children--why no one cares?
6
On Ash Wednesday we should look at this suffering and feel ashamed. We are indeed a poor lot, selfish, greedy, and need redemption desperately. This reporting is why I love the Times. You report on suffering with, painfully graphic photography. I'll never get the image of the starving polar bear out of my mind. It is there every time I donate to the WildEarth Guardians. For this article, I'll donate to Unicef.
10
The Syrian uprising began with peaceful protests of the abduction, torture, and murder of graffiti writers by the Syrian regime. The ruling Alevi regime represents a minority of 3 million, while the Sunnis are a majority is 15 million - so, the Alevis see representative democracy as genocide. So, ethnic cleansing and genocide to prevent a representative democracy becomes conscionable.
Russia is an enthusiastic partner, since they want to prevent the construction of a Qatar-Turkey pipeline- rather, they and their Shiite security partners in Syria, Iraq, and Iran want to construct an Syria-Iran-Iraq gas pipeline. For much the same reason Russia couldn't allow the Ukraine to be NATO - to monopolize the flow of energy into Europe. To guarantee, through naval bases in Crimea and in Tartus, access to the mediterranean.
The liberal critique of western imperialism in the Middle East suffers from a Eurocentrism that forgets that there are other nation states with their own intelligence agencies, their own relationships with unsavory salafists, and their own imperial ambitions.
The graffiti writing, peaceful protests, heart-breakingly naively hopeful video blogging ... they probably suspected they'd be bombed into dust, but they probably never suspected they'd be erased from our collective memory, replaced with a bunch of blood thirsty balaclavad medieval times cosplayers, and their graves bored through for the Syria-Iraq-Iran gas pipeline.
14
Where is the world's policeman when we need him?
2
@J. Waddell Ask Officer Obama. He led the way in telling the world not to care about the use of chemical weapons by the brutal dictator Assad.
9
That the secretary General of the UN is awol in this crisis is disgraceful. He headed the humanitarian mandate for years and one his key responsibilities in his current terms of reference is promoting the Charter's peace and security mandate. So far, he gets an F. If it was not for the robust advocacy of David Milliband at IRC, the human misery in Syria would not make it to the headlines. I get it that most of the leaders in the Middle East are in the pay and service pocket of the US. Is it that they have no conscience? As Martin Luther King would implore in peroration: How looooong... will the Middle East remain in the dark ages of religious fanaticism, oppression of women, dire poverty amidst obscene wealth, while demonstrating blind obsequiousness to nation that cares about two things only? Oil and destructive weapon sales!
6
We don't want to send troops to defend these people because there's nothing in it for us; no oil, no coveted sea access, no Christians and no free-wheeling capitalist puppet regime to prop up. So keep closing your eyes and pretend such human suffering isn't happening because without any morality in our government and no force strong enough to thwart Russia, the torture will continue. The only hope these people have is the cruel and indifferent Islamic nation of Turkey so, basically, they're already dead.
4
Since trump has shown how he can easily kill terrorists why doesn’t he illuminate the Syrian leader causing all this destruction?
The reality is Putin wants back Syria. He is committed to annihilate all rebels in Syria.
1
I get that America was an original facilitator in what this has become. What matters now is helping these disenfranchised people. Nothing else matters. If the people in power in this country really value all life, our country's leaders should be doing anything in our powerful arsenal to help these people. These are human lives, yes, OUTSIDE of the womb. They matter.
7
Just from today's headlines:
"Syria: 21 dead as targets including schools and nurseries bombed in Idlib" - The Guardian (UK)
"Children Freeze to Death as Attack Prompts Largest Exodus of Syrian War" - The New York Times
Meanwhile Trump, the Western nations, NATO do nothing. Not even declaring a no-fly zone over the current conflict zone in Idlib province; an area not under Assad's control which probably covers less than a thousand miles.
6
@EMIP
And enforce it by shooting down Russian jets? Sure, that sounds like an excellent idea...
6
@Locke_:
The U.S. doesn't have to get involved. The Turks want us to sell them one or two Patriot surface to air batteries and we should. Just their mere presence on the Turkish side of the border would bring Assad's and Russia's war crimes of deliberately bombing civilians to an immediate halt. Because they know that Turkey would not hesitate to shoot down their planes if it comes to protecting the Turkish forces on the ground.
Besides, if it comes to that and Turkey's burgeoning economic and political relations with Russia go down the tubes, it is to our and the West's benefit as well.
1
Obama should have set up a no fly zone early. Then there would be a place for a free Syria and a lot of the violence & destruction would have been avoided.
5
What can we do to help these kids the best? I've been donating, but I am not sure how else or better we can help.
The horrible situation was made by many, and the kids aren't one of them. What are the leaders of free good world doing and where are they? Do we have any such "good leader" of the free world left?
1
We should have bombed ASSAD,early, he single handedly responsible for the destruction of Syria.Too late!
3
@JG:
Not "Too late". Sell the Turks one or two Patriot surface to air missile defense batteries as they have rerequested just a week ago and watch how quickly Assad's and Russia's aerial bombardment of civilians in Idlib comes to a screeching halt! And with no U.S. boots on the ground.
Just as we gave Stinger shoulder fired missiles to the Afghan rebels fighting the Soviets in the 1980's. But the shoulder fired MANPAD's the rebels are currently using in Idlib can only shoot down Assad's low flying helicopters, not the aircraft conducting the deliberate bombing of civilian targets from high altitudes.
1
Thanks for the article. This subject was asked about during the South Carolina debate. The first to get the question - Buttigieg complete ignored it and went on to talk about health care. No other candidate addressed the issue - Trump has sold these people out, stabbed our allies in the back, and moved on to his next fake crises.
14
Where are the UN troops with the blue helmets. These people need immediate help and protection. The only chance I see is the EU working together with Erdogan of Turkey to resolve the Humanitarian crisis. Turkey is on the edge of bankruptcy. It needs our support. But I fear the demagogues and the fear of demagogues does not allow bold and immediate action. I hope the EU can react fast and united for once. Or will the EUs foreign stance be dictated and restrained again by the fear of right wing populists like Orban. People who profit the most of EU and globalization, but do not feel nor promote the European spirit and values. Its a irrational mess. And Germany is too afraid to lead.
1
I may be nieve but i do not understand how these so called rebels, (against Assad) can still be around after 8 or 9 years of getting pummeled. They have no chance of winning.
Why don’t they simply surrender and let the country begin to rebuild like what has happened to Europe and so many other countries at wars end.
4
@Charles alexander Because the US goverment keeps sending the rebels( terrorists) money and weapons.
1
Honestly, I wish that instead of commenting, everyone who reads this story would donate to an aid organization (at least two are mentioned in the article) and perhaps even write their senators/representative about supporting government aid to Syrians (people, not gov't). We can do that much, at least, before we start assigning blame and wringing our hands about it being a cruel, messy world.
7
@Chelsea That is a good point. You are absolutely right. Commenting does not prevent you from donating though.
3
We enter a period of covid19 naval gazing on how it will affect our holiday schedules and use up insane amounts of resources to keep elderly people alive when this sort of suffering goes ahead unchecked and almost unnoticed- the weakest always take the brunt- stunted childhoods and lives- hopefully there will be an appetite to fix this as it will be a reservoir of illness and suffering
2
If these people really mean to continu fighting alBashar, they seem to have a terrible starting point.
I do not know all I want to know about the situation, but two questions come to mind:
- Why not just surrender?
- Why is the US supporting a side, that for all intents and purposes is a rebellion against the legitimate power?
Logically, the US ought to support Tamils, the muslims of Kashmir, and the military side of the IRA, if any are left.
1
Thanks in good measure to Obama and H Clinton who passed on removing Assad. Unintended consequence of not acting.
11
George W. Bush destabilization of the region. Obama leaning back and watching. Germany paying for refugees. Trump spitting words and acting none. Sounds familiar? The last three US presidents were worth nothing.
7
For those who want to donate, Turkish Red Crescent, which is the official humanitarian agency in Turkey, is providing the most support for Syrian refugees and well-positioned in the area. So, Turkish Red Crescent is a good option to donate.
3
Both Europe and the U.S. bear responsibility for not ending this conflict in its early days by failing to adequately support the opposition while simultaneously negotiating a peace agreement with Russia and Iran that would have included replacing Assad.
They abandoned any pretense of human rights and left Syrians in the hands of two of the worlds most brutal dictators, Assad and Putin, whose war crimes have gone unchallenged because of the two overriding national security concerns of the West: terrorism and refugees.
The terrible irony is that an emboldened Putin unleashed an even greater threat to the West than al Qaeda and Isis--just look at the state of affairs in the Putin-manipulated U.S. and U.K.--both of which are rotting from the inside.
And the fear of mass refugee flows, manipulated by Assad and Putin, will remain a threat for decades after the war ends as whatever constitutional fig-leaf reforms emerge in Syria are unlikely to erase the fear of return this war has engendered in the millions of refugees who have fled, more than half of whom are children growing up in brutal conditions.
146
"Supporting the opposition"? You mean supporting the islamist fundamentalists who founded the so called Islamic State at first opportunity, where all non-believers and blasphemers ended up with their head on a spike at the roundabout in Raqqa, or in the river with the throat slit? Is that the opposition you suggest we should have supported? Well, thank you for voicing your opinion.
37
@rb
In 2012, as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton disallowed a UN negotiated peace agreement because it did not oust Assad.
Can you imagine how much death, pain, destruction and refugees could have been prevented if the US armed and instigated civil war had been ended in 2012?
But the US wanted Assad out... at any cost.
20
@rb
I'm sorry, but your rationale has served as a major contributing factor for the past and present chaos in the Middle East.
15
This is a great piece of journalism, beautifully written, and in reading the comments has clearly communicated with the hearts of the readers.
Has our global system failed so much that we allow Putin, Assad and Trump to commit these attrocities in tandem? Think our pulling our troops out of the region suddenly did not open the door for this continued bloodshed?
The UN’s last count of those killed in Syria was over 400,000 in 2016. Why has there been no accountability since? Who will hold this dictator accountable for displacing over half of his nation and killing half a million? Will we truly support in the United States a President who aids this man by giving him an open door to kill?
Or have we lost all hope in action? These stories have flooded the news for almost a decade now. What to be done?
152
@David
Syria was not only a well functioning society, but secular, with the Assad government promoting tolerance among the many ethnicities and religions, and with women in government and all professions. Admittedly, Assad was harsh in dealing with the always restless Sunni Islamists, who were always encouraged by the US to rise against Assad.
How long did it take the US Establishment and government to accept responsibility for the overthrow of democratically elected Mossadegh?
64 years... though it was common knowledge for those of us who care about US foreign policy and its history.
The US, Obama and his Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are responsible for this terrible aftermath of the civil war they armed and instigated to bring down Assad.
In 2012!, Hillary disallowed a UN led peace agreement to proceed because it did not insist on Assad's leaving. When the peace agreement was not allowed to proceed, violence surged and 6 million Syrian became refugees, many flooded into Europe, crating a backlash that has changed Europe, and probably, was the Brexit tipping point.
In a leaked audio you can google, Kerry can be heard that they were WATCHING ISIS grow, and that ISIS might be useful in ousting Assad.
The US is responsible for this tragedy.
15
@David
Your comment made me cry because of its beauty and clarity. Thank you.
3
@David There is no recourse to justice at the international level. Authoritarian leaders would rather kill than quit. They have gained power by the gun, and they keep power by the gun. It is better to have a four year feud between democrats and republicans than a armed power struggle.
5
A photograph in the story shows a young boy leaning on a stack of boxes and gazing ahead, thinking.
What must he be thinking about? What values has he learned from the conditions of his childhood?
His eyes say it all. What are we doing to children?
161
@Thomas Fowler
What a poignant, beautiful response. Certainly has me pondering the same questions. If only more people around the world were as empathetic and interested in the plight of Syrians. Thank you.
8
@Thomas Fowler - What a poignant and beautiful response, but you know what makes me cry? All the deep denial that this war was started by the CIA during the Obama administration. And the goal was never Freedom for Syrians, the goal was American hegemony. The US government needs to investigate this war before the World Court steps in and does it for us, as we collectively writhe and scream "Nothing to see here!"
7
This is heartbreaking. While we go about our business and talk about the fast spreading corona-virus, little do we know or talk about the children that are dying because of the cold, hunger and not a virus. We are looking to find vaccines for the virus but we fail to take care of the children in war zones when we already know how to.
217
@ALN
So, what should "we" do? I believe that most of us do care, we just find ourselves in positions of utter helplessness. Maybe "the US" or "the EU" could do something - but we, citizens, what can we do? I have long ago lost the illusion that our governments care much for what we care about unless it happens to suit their personal needs to do so. Trump, Boris Johnson, Xi, Putin, they care about Trump, Boris, Xi, Putin - and probably they care more about each other's wellbeing, their little boy's club, where they get to play global games, even if they're nominally opponents, than they do about a millions Syrians.
4
@ALN -
But it’s the Way of the World.
France and Britain created “Syria”, tore it from Turkey. Where are they now?
Now, the Turks want it back. But the people are in the way. So, you depopulate.
What’s happening here is subjugating a non-Turkish, non-Alawite population, while everyone else watches.
Is it terrible? Yes.
Everything about it is terrible.
How horrific . How sad ! To see a country burn as hope and am earning for freedom rose up temporarily and is torn down and strangled by evil men . To see children who do not know anything of why they suffer die so needlessly and in such cruel ways as their parents struggle to save them.
Having medics bombed to pieces targeted specifically to terrorise the population. Seeing images of little ones gasping after a chemical attack ... and other little ones washing up on distant shores .. their lifeless bodies screaming to us about the pain they endured.
Is there no end in sight to this chaos and bloodshed?
Poor poor Syrians .
179
@Matt
“ls there no end in sight to this chaos and bloodshed? “
The simple answer is ‘No’.
Donny’s mate Vlad has been at war with Europe and the USA for years. He knows that an endless stream of refugees will maintain economic, political and social disruption more effectively than anything else.
And it is so easy, a few whispers in Donny’s ear and a few bombs on a hospital..
8
@Matt
Very, very regrettable that you did not pay attention to Obama's attempting to overthrow Syria's government, by arming dissidents and encouraging them to instigate a civil war.
This is the tragic result of Obama foreign policy.
Were you paying attention?
Did you object?
3
Any suggestions on best organizations to donate to? At the most basic (and inadequate) level, we should make sure aid organizations have enough tents to give to cold families out in the extremes.
280
Shelter box is one helping that my personal Rotary club is involved with. Check them out.
13
@Sarah Jones
Did you find out best pplace to donate?
@Sarah Jones The IRC, founded by Einstein, International Rescue Committee does great work.
39
This is precisely the reason why many Americans were so appalled by Trump's withdrawal of U.S. troops from the border. His connivance with Turkish theocratic nationalists resulted in this human catastrophe.
I am frankly tired of listening to Americans, both left and right, whine about the cost of 'forever wars.' Americans, fat with their latest amazon purchases packed into 3,500 square foot homes in the exurbs, now find themselves weary of the middle east.
Well too darn bad.
Americans should have thought about what might happen before they signed off on Bush's war with the connivance of the Joe Biden's of the world. In a democracy, you don't get to blame a dictator for stupid wars. It's the people's fault. It's our fault, and morally we don't get to dump the human wreckage on Europe and wash our hands of it just because its unpleasant to watch on our 100 inch plasma smart T.V.s.
14
@Gary FS
US forces were in the Eastern part of Syria as are the Syrian Kurds. Idlib is in the West and no Kurdish or American forces ever operated in this area, except for the operation against Baghdadi. And you can't blame the Syrian civil war on the US. It's cause was the brutal actions of the government under Assad.
If your assumptions are wrong your finger pointing is also wrong.
5
@Locke_ I'm sorry, but I am pointing my finger squarely in the right direction. The presence of even the small number of American troops stabilized the entire region along the Turkish border. When we bolted, the Turks took advantage of the opportunity and moved across the border. That in turn permitted the el-Assad's forces, previously kept at bay by the American presence, to move north in order to confront Turkish aggression and reassert control over the border. The recent spate of violence and the human catastrophe is entirely a consequence of the U.S.'s precipitous withdrawal. This is the very situation that experts warned would happen right after Trump made his surprise announcement - which is why hiding behind the fatuous argument that "our troops were in the east" rings hollow. The mission itself was to intended to stabilize the entire border, not just a part, and it worked until we cut-and-run.
Fact is, but for the Iraq invasion and our own incompetence in post war management, none of this would be happening.
2
The USA is a relatively new player in the disaster that is the entire middle east. That said, it is no excuse for our ignorant, cruel and selfish policies.
We need to help these poor people. For you pseudo Christian GOP Trumpsters out there, the mandate is " to whom much is given, much will be required." Luke 12:48
5
I want to know why MEN love to make war and babies. I have no idea as to why there was a Civil War in Syria nor the total extent of the ISIS destruction. (Palmyra was destroyed.) I do not know why Obama thought it was good to arm the "freedom fighters!"
And frankly, it's really time for fewer babies to be born everywhere. (Given how women are treated amongst various groups in the Islam faith -- it is appalling.)
Frankly, wars are horrible but recounting the human problems does not exactly solve anything. and the leaders of the world really do need to figure out how to stop over-breeding which is endemic in various parts of the world.
7
Ah Turkey, see what friendship that S-400 system bought you from the Russians-- they solicitously talk about peace and simultaneously blast a path for Syrian government forces to kill your favorite rebels. Good luck with your new friends and all those refugees they're giving you.
4
Lest we forget, a proximal part of the responsibility for this particular humanitarian crisis lies directly on the fatuous shoulders of trump, by his having signaled to the Russians and Turks that American troops were being withdrawn from their peacekeeping mission in Northern Syria, thereby leaving a vacuum to be filled with the dogs of war, and the poor women, children and elderly to suffer unimaginable hardship. We know that trump cares only about himself.
41
@D M
While i agree with you, assigning blame does nothing to help these people. Blaming is the easy thing to do.
@D M:
It's worse than that actually. Right now we have a U.S. armored brigade guarding oil wells at Deir ez Zor in eastern Syria which belongs to all of the Syrian people but is being operated by and benefiting only the Kurds which constitute just 10% of Syria's population.
Whereas the aerial bombardment of civilians and other war crimes by the Assad regime and the Russians are occurring in Idlib province, located in northwestern Syria, on the other side of that country. It shows the total lack of morality on the part of the Trump administration that it would prefer only to guard oil wells rather than to also halt the carnage of human beings in the same country.
We could have put a stop to the deliberate bombing of hospitals and schools by acting jointly with our allies under NATO auspices to declare a no-fly zone over Idlib which the Russians would not have dared to challenge. But Trump has burned the bridges with our allies.
At the very least, Trump could sell the Turks one or two Patriot ground to air missile batteries as they have recently asked to purchase once again and which they could use to stop the Syrian and Russian air sorties over Idlib without our troops getting involved. But Trump has done nothing in that regard as well.
This goes beyond isolationism, it demonstrates a lack of humanity on Trump's part which also reflects on our nation.
4
@D M
Your theory might have some validity except for the fact that Assad was attacking Idlib even before US forces left the North **East** of Syria. FYI: Idlib is in the North **West**. And the assaults on Idlib are exactly the same as the attacks on the other "de escalation zones" that you either don't know anything about or have conveniently forgotten. Looks to what happened to Rastan, and Eastern Ghouta and Deraa/Quneitra.
Trying to blame Trump for Idlib is ridiculous.
1
If we had an authentic leader, that leader would be bringing, al-Assad, Putin, and Erdogan together for talks to make it possible for massive amounts of humanitarian aid to reach the refugees. There isn't any practical way to relocate the many millions of people to safe places out of Syria, their home country.
The only solution for stopping the killing, starving, freezing, and misery inflicted on these people is to stop al-Assad and Putin from bombing the country. Nine years of destruction and killing hasn't brought a political solution. Trump needs to man up and have a talk with his buddy Putin. Without Putin's support al-Assad might finally be stopped.
17
@Gina
Why would Putin withdraw Russian assistance to Assad? He doesn't care if thousands or even millions are killed. We're not going to war with Russia and we've already sanctioned it about as much as is possible. Our allies certainly won't go along with any new sanctions; keep in mind that Europe gets a huge percentage of its oil and gas from Russia and is hoping to buy more.
Please explain exactly how Trump can get Assad and Putin to stop.
1
what is being overlooked is that Idlib is an ISIS stronghold. It is the presence of ISIS and its control in Idlib that has brought about such a furious war. Yes civilians will be killed but that is the price they pay for their support of ISIS.
It is really essential that ISIS be destroyed no matter the cost to its civilian supporters.
12
Exactly. The resistance of Idlib are the same people who were at the core of ISIS. What's hard to understand here?
8
Women and children can not oppose Islamic State. They have tried to endure it but now they can not even do that. Many will die because the leaders of the countries that could stop this atrocity are more concerned with politics and power than with the lives of woman and children... and fathers who hold their dead and broken children in their arms. Sort out who is to blame later. We must all press the leaders of our countries to bring international pressure to get basic relief to these people. Imagine what the Coronavirus would do if let loose among the people there?
2
@Judy Weller
Not ISIS, HTS formerly al Nusra Front. They're an Al Qaeda franchisee.
3
It’s unfortunate that the tragedies like this don’t receive the media attention they deserve. This should have been the first headline of all news outlets and not Trump’s ridiculous tweets.
Please share and help by donating to legitimate charities.
25
@Eddie please tell me some charities! I want to help and hate when articles don’t tell you how!
Donald Trump's withdrawl from the region to appease his friend in Turkey and protect his financial interests in Istanbul gave Putin and Assad a clear path to these attacks against humanity.
18
@Mitch
Gah! Another one of these. Assad was attacking Idlib long before US troops withdrew from Eastern Syria. It's almost like there's people being paid to spread the same fake message...
3
I watched the Oscar nominated Documentary FOR SAMA recently. The war in Syria is heartbreaking. What confused me in the midst of so much evil and destruction, the educated female director gave birth to two children. What is life when you are surrounded by death, disease, and hate?
5
I get your point, Mike. Lately, it’s hard to see why anyone has kids at all. I struggle to be optimistic about our global future, and mostly fail. At the same time, your comment hovers somewhere in an uncomfortable realm of supposing you know better than the woman did. She’s even “educated” and yet your sympathy for the situation seems marred by superiority. Something to consider.
1
I am always skeptical reading these stories when the authors fail to put the conflict in proper context and fail to even print the words TIMBER SYCAMORE. Why? Why is it never mentioned that our CIA in alliance with the Saudi and U.A.E. intelligence services instituted a regime change war against Assad? Why never mention that the militants they funded and armed were off shoots of al Qaeda and worked with ISIS. Why no mention that our military, that was fighting ISIS with the Kurds, complained bitterly that our own CIA's program was arming ISIS with our very own weapons? None of this is ever discussed in any of these article and I want to know why? Surely the authors are well aware of Timber Sycamore and the disastrous consequence it had as it tried to overthrow a sovereign country with militant, Islamic jihadists. Can we please put things in perspective. This boneheaded program instituted by the Obama administration and Hillary Clinton's State Department has left close to a million civilians dead on both sides of the conflict and tens of millions more displaced. All of this could have been avoided if we hadn't tried to overthrown Assad at the behest of the Israelis and the Saudis. Can we discuss this more and acknowledge our responsibility in this genocide? Or is that too inconvenient to the narrative? Syria was a very high functioning society. I don't think they ever had public beheadings or flogged women for driving.
38
@FXQ
also:
"1) The US government spends over $1B in a few years secretly arming and funding Assad's opponents in Syria: a country halfway around the world where the US has never declared war and has few potential allies;
2) US government and media emphasize the horrors of Assad's regime and play up the alleged existence of "moderates" as a serious force within Syria;
3) However, since these moderates do not actually exist as a serious force within Syria, many if not most of these $1B are spent on arming ISIS, al Qaeda, and their affiliates;
4) The Syrian war continues with appalling violence on both sides, but Assad comes out ahead;
5) While arming and funding ISIS and its allies in Syria, the US is simultaneously arming and funding the Iraqi Army in preparation for a massive siege against ISIS in Mosul. The appalling violence in Mosul is barely covered by US media;
6) Meanwhile, the US government insists - according to this article, even in internal discussions on how the US is funding ISIS - that fighting ISIS is the top priority;
7) Finally, the funding ends, and the foreign policy establishment whines that it was never enough, that it wasn't given a chance to succeed. Surely with time it could have succeeded even better than our covert funding of bin Laden in Soviet Afghanistan.
Imagine a country where such a patient and nurturing approach was applied to investments in its domestic welfare, rather than to investments in endless, self-perpetuating foreign wars."
5
@FXQ Most journalists these days wont get paid if they tell the truth about Americas wars. Everyone knows the US started it, same as in all of the middle east and south america; just look at Venezuela.
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Republicans lied to start a war in Iraq, and Centrist Democrats helped them.
That war further destabilized the Middle East and sent millions of refugees into Syria, destabilizing that country.
Now the Republicans blame Democrats for Iraq and Syria.
If you compromise with Republicans, you get bad policy, and they blame you for that policy. (See NAFTA, unfetterred free trade, investment bank deregulation, mass incarceration, etc.)
The Right is attacking the Constitution. Compromising with them only threatens the Constitution. See Trump.
When your strategy fails, try a new strategy.
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This disaster is more of our making than most Americans realize.
Unlike most of the recent coverage this article at least acknowledges that "the rebels" we hear so much about that the Syrian government is attacking are members of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), perhaps better known to Americans as Al Qaeda.
For years the US, Turkey and the UAE, under the leadership of the CIA, armed, trained, and funded Salafist terrorist groups, including HTS, in their efforts to destabilize or overthrow the government of Bashar Assad. Formally, the US only directly assisted "moderate rebels," but in practice those consistently defected with their guns to the Salafists who ended out dominating all "rebel" areas.
Now several tens of thousands of these Salafist fighter, their supporters and their families are concentrated in Idlib from which position they have blocked major transportation routes & carried out attacks. Many of the refugees we are seeing pictures of are not originally from Idlib at all, but are precisely the friends and family of these Salafist fighters.
What should the Syrian government do? Let this densely populated Al Qaeda base defended by Turkish troops just fester? What would the US do if Al Qaeda established Massachusetts as a base under its rule with the assistance of a foreign power?
The US corporate media reporting on Syria is largely propaganda intended to manipulate us into supporting more of the same disastrous regime change operations that produced this situation.
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@Christopher Thank you for stating the facts. As a person born close to the region I feel like media is underreporting the amount of influence US plays/played there. Yes, this disaster has a lot to do with this country and CIA. I frankly don’t understand why people blame trump for this (not a fan of the guy). The meddleing of US has been a policy since WWII when Europe had to basically stop its own meddling and work on rebuilding itself.
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Acknowledging the fact that the area is a rebel stronghold, what was omitted includes that it is an al-Qaeda stronghold and it has been used to shell Aleppo and the defeated side refusing to accept it.
The prevailing story is the plight of civilians caught in a war.
The solution that is implied in these stories is that the US should once again declare R2P and act.
When we invaded Iraq in 2003, it only took over 177,000 soldiers (130,000 being US). This time we are not facing a fourth rate power. This time we will attack Russian troops. Do you think 177,000 soldiers will be enough?
And once we invade and destroy the monsters, what happens next? Based upon the success stories of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, I would not expect democracy and peace.
And if we eliminate the Syrian government, who takes over. Freedom loving people or al-Qaeda?
If the goal is to end the suffering of innocent civilians, on both sides, the US would recognize that our support for the rebels has failed and continued support will only prolong the problem. Syria should regain all of its territory that is now held by rebels and foreign forces who were not invited by the government. Working with Moscow, we should push for the reintegration of those rebels who wish to lay down their arms and return.
Anything else is world war 3 or hypercritical stories about war’s inhumanity.
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This is what it means for us to "not involve ourselves in foreign disputes." Bad things happen. Of course, bad things happen either way but we are knocked from atop our moral high ground perch when we fail to intervene.
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@AACNY We intervened in Iraq and Afghaistan and Libya, how'd that go? What makes you think this time will be better?
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The Middle East has a long history of dictators and religious and ethnic strife and intolerance. It would seem that diversity does not make them stronger or unify them. People in that part of the world ( and many other places) see themselves as a member of a religious or ethnic group first and a citizen of some country a very distant second. Until they reject the fundamentalist and backward religious and ethnic underpinnings that have rotted out any chance of democracy in that part of the world this will be business as usual. Educate and empower women and democracy and stability follow. How to get there is another issue however.
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Zoom out a little, commenters.
This is business as usual for homo sapiens, perhaps our 100,000th year of this behavior.
Individually we possess logic, compassion, common sense, love. Collectively we tolerate absurd levels of hatred, oppression, warfare, torture and rape. The major difference from any other historical or pre-historical era is the scale.
Relieve the suffering, sure, and condemn the behavior, even vilify the malefactor if you wish. But to me, this seems like scratching at the symptoms. Few seem to be seeking and addressing the root causes. Disagreement about the root causes seems to be enough reason to accept the flaw in human nature and continue the carnage.
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@William Romp
Root cause analysis is only valuable when you can actually effect change in the root causes once identified. Dictators and centuries' old territorial battles are not likely candidates for such influence.
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Couldn’t agree with you more. This is the time to reach out and help the helpless and not sit back and pontificate.
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Post world war we have crisis such , Korean war, Vietnam war, Cambodian civil war, Biafra famine , Ethiopia famine etc.
What is different now is.
General sentiment world politics was mercy and at least pretending to be finding a solution.
Nowadays
Sentiment is cruel cold blooded, I do not care , let them die, it is not my people , my country.
This sentiment is in Politics, in general public, all over the world.
The only reason for the sentiment, I do not want to share my earned money with anybody.
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I volunteer for Helping Hands for Relief and Development, a global humanitarian agency. We send used clothing, shoes, and school supplies to third world nations. Many of our donations have gone to refugee camps in Jordan and Lebanon for Syrian refugees. Our regional coordinator has visited the camp in Jordan twice and her stories are heartbreaking. Some relief agencies cannot even get into Syria because it is too dangerous. The International Rescue Committee, IRC, also helps out. I volunteered there for two and a half years helping teach English as a second language to refugees. But as we all know, there is a dearth of refugees under this administration. Many fine agencies laid off staff or cut programs. The agony of these people never ends. The stories I've heard bring me to tears. I wish there was more that I could do besides fold clothes to send to refugee camps and pray.
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To those who have short memory, similar tragedy, perhaps to a lesser degree, happened in Iraq, and we all know whose hand is behind it. Assad maybe ruthless, but there was a stable government, provision of basic utilities, health care, education, law enforcement - again like Iraq. Let me see, what happened then? Arab spring, rebel groups armed by CIA, collapse of Iraqi government and resultant rise of ISIS; everybody fights ISIS, then US opened fire on Syria government forces, then US abruptly withdrew their forces. There were peace efforts, but let me see, what was the US position again? "Assad must go". Any wonder there is no incentive for Assad to negotiate? Not to justify Syrian government's atrocities, and the plight of those suffering is truly heart breaking, but you are just shedding crocodile tears after your government messes up in yet another Middle Eastern country.
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Let us not forget that we started this tragedy by starting an insurgency in Syria and supplying the insurgents with arms and munitions during the Obama administration.
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Anyone know if a legitimate charity that helps these people on the border?
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@Tanya S
There are many, they all work through local groups and or national staff inside. They include: Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS),
International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, CARE, GOAL, MSF, International Medical Corps, Save the Children
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@rb , thank you!
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@rb But are they reaching these people? It wouldn't seem so since most NGOs can't go into a war zone. We have to talk to our politicians who can muster themselves to push for a humanitarian corridor
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Life under a dictator in the Middle East. What’s new. I guess not all people believe in the same ideals of government. If only there was one democracy in the Middle East. Oh well.
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Seems like the perfect time for Trump to visit Assad and commend him on his devotion to human rights. Maybe even give him a Medial of Freedom. /s
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@Detached Human rights? All that is required in that region is security, order and stability, by any means necessary.
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@Detached
More likely a pardon.
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And the shame of knowing that we didn’t merely allow this to happen. We facilitated it and encouraged the Syrians.
And today the Supreme Court told border guards that it is ok to shoot from the US into Mexico and kill children playing. We’re paying government snipers to murder children.
Who would have ever thought it would come to this?
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@Ed Pittsburgh The Republican brand is cruelty, and they need fresh horrors to sell to the people who approve. Sadly, there are a lot of Americans who have abysmally low standards for themselves and, consequently, their representatives. If they don't have something - happiness, fulfillment, education - then no one should have it. With such people as co-citizens, we don't need external enemies.
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The sooner the Syrian government can free its people from these bloody murderous insurgents, the better. Every day that passes, more civilians die because of these terrorists. If they had any courage, they would surrender now, spare the lives of the innocent, and face justice for their actions.
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@Lisa The Syrian government is not blameless. Lest you forget chemical warfare? The killing of their own citizens with the help of Russia!
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@Lisa One person's insurgent is another person's freedom fighter. I agree with you in that I never saw Bashar Al Assad as a devil, but it seems that many Syrians did...
1
Absolutely heartbreaking.
Syria and your refugees, I am praying for you.
Is it just me or does our world seem colder and crueler than ever? I can't remember a time when there has been this much strife and inequality around the world, and trust me I'm no spring chicken.
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Louis,
I think it’s always been pretty cold and cruel for many across the ages, but we used to be better at averting our eyes and feigning ignorance.
John Keats spoke of it a few hundred years ago. I’m sure we can go back thousands of years, though.
We’re an inventive species when it comes to selfishness and cruelty.
14
It’s understandable to feel overwhelmed, like the world is crueler and more barbaric than ever before but it’s important to remember....it only FEELS like that because we have more ways to report news than ever before.
All of these kinds of atrocities, war crimes, murders, mass starvation, racism, corruption, etc have been happening (and probably on a worse scale) since the dawn of civilization, we just didn’t have a 24 hour news cycle to hear about it.
As for thinking of a time in history that felt darker? Basically any decade in the 20th century fits that bill. World War I? The Holocaust? The Great Leap Forward in China? Everything Joseph Stalin did?
And if you want to go back even further the list goes on and on: the American slave trade, basically the entire Middle/Dark Ages, all of the various religious conquests (Islam & Christianity), etc etc etc.
Obviously, a lot of people are still suffering and humanity is still incredibly cruel, but it’s important to remember that for the most part, a lot of things have improved. The fact that most of the civilized world collectively agrees that war is bad/tries to avoid it at all costs is already a massive improvement.
6
Helping these refugees should be a priority worldwide. Unfortunately our leaders turn the blind eye. Heartbreaking and very sad. How can I help?
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I wish that at the end of this heartbreaking article the Times had listed reliable charities to donate to.
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@Kb they should have but commenters have listed some. I just donated through Save the Children.
1
And you can once again thank trump for this humanitarian disaster,
Pulling US troops out and handing this region to trump’s partner in global corruption, Putin, was and is a National disgrace.
Add this to list of trump’s “great achievements”. In addition to children in cages you can now add millions of homeless families and children freezing to death.
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@Steven
You seem to be confusing Idlib, where the CIA and US allies armed and trained Salafist terrorists affiliate with Al Qaeda with the Kurdish controlled Eastern half of Syria where the US troops assisted the Kurds in fighting ISIS. Trump recently pulled most of the US troops out of Eastern Syria.
The only connection between the two is that after the US started withdrawing its troops, the Turkish Army accompanied by Salafist fighters invaded a strip of Eastern Syria and and started settling the Salafist's families in Kurdish areas in a naked act of ethnic cleansing.
In either event, the US should never have been in Syria in the first place. ISIS would never have emerged in the first place had the US not stoked the Civil War there and those same efforts are the original cause of the present refugee crisis.
Syria is well within its rights to try to reclaim its national territory from foreign sponsored Al Qaeda forces. We should resist the efforts of the corporate media to misrepresent the causes of the resulting refugee problem for the purposes of drumming up support for more of the same disastrous US-led regime change operations.
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@Christopher And how did the US stoke the civil war? That's revisionist history for sure! Maybe a simple wikipedia search will enlighten you
2
Perhaps it is time for our NATO allies to abandon any hope of American leadership, agree on an intervention strategy and send in their troops to kick out Assad, Putin and the Iranians and rescue what's left of the Syrian population.
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@Christy Maybe it is time to leave Syria to Syrian people. They lived just fine before our "democratic" interference. Calling NATO to intervene in Syria is equal to call for occupation. Since when Islamist militia is democratic force? Look what has been done to Syria cough between US, Russia and Turkey. Same fate would happen to any country not strong enough to stand up for itself-We just need to to leave like yesterday together with Russia and Turkey.
6
@Christy
You're kidding yourself if you think the non-US members of NATO will left a military finger against Syria. Not only are they disinclined, they lack the ability to do so with any effect without the US to at the very least supply support. In any event, they wouldn't because it would require opposing Russia which can turn off the natural gas supply and watch Europe freeze.
2
The world has resources to help these people! And to deliver the help immediately. Turkey is a NATO nation and as such has a responsibility to allow the maximum humanitarian aid across the border. Where are all the refugee programs and other non-governmental agencies? Programs I’ve contributed to for years for just this kind of situation!! This is an emergency and it doesn’t appear like anyone is treating it like an emergency. Even the candidates on the stage last night had no idea what to do for the Syrian refugees. Where was their outrage?Where was the problem-solving thinking that I would expect from a presidential candidate. I’m disgusted.
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@SMS Exactly right. I've been reading and watching all the coverage on this terrible crisis. I sit in the warmth of my home and watch Arwa Damon's superb and compassionate coverage on CNN news. Though her reporting is masterful, it becomes a fleeting moment in the endless cycle of daily news. I find myself haunted by the suffering of these people, especially the children...and then, I pick up and go on with my comfortable life. And, while I go on with the business of living my life, these people continue to suffer, every minute of every day. I feel guilty I was born into a reasonably comfortable zip code. I do donate money and I'm appalled trump's ego centric desire to satisfy a campaign promise to his base has helped to worsen the strife these children have been born into. I will watch For Same today. Another documentary that was up for an Oscar was The Cave. Also, haunting, especially the ending. America is not paying attention to this crisis. For that, I am so very sad.
6
Pete and Warren lost me with their answers about what do about the crisis in Idlib, Syria. The moderators should have demanded an answer from all the candidates. And, the candidates should all have answered that it is unacceptable for the Russians to be slaughtering the Syrians on behalf of Assad and that the US is calling on all its NATO allies to intervene, and that additional sanctions would be in place in the new administration. A new administration will not repeat the same mistakes as the Trump and Obama administrations.
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@Hisham Oumlil Yes, stunning non answers from Warren and Buttigieg and then letting the other candidates ignore the issue too because they obviously have no clue what is going on in Idlib. Buttigieg even switched the topic.
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@Hisham Oumlil I was not a Biden fan but he was the only one who seemed to have any idea about international relations at all
2
Just to note that many question why able bodied men from Syria and elsewhere flee their countries instead of staying the course, but rebelling against authority has become much more difficult in the modern era. Even with weapons and knowledge supplied by allies, how do rebels mount attacks against authorities who have the resources to strangle unrest via superior intelligence apparatus, airborne bombing campaigns, and other elements of modern warfare? The stories and images from Syria are heartbreaking and enervating: what to do?
13
Sadness, despair & children dying from the cold, is that the world we want to live in. If not, then leaders like Bashar & Putin should be put on trial in the World Court to pay for their cruelty to human life. An then, Americans need to turn inward and rid ourselves of the threat we face in our fragile democracy, Criminal Trump, vote him out.
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We also should be willing to take in many of these refugees, otherwise we're just as complicit in their destruction. We opened the door to this mass chaos in the middle east. Some EU countries, particularly Germany, did their part during the first wave while we did nothing but create false fears to justify our inaction.
5
Watch the PBS Oscar-nominated Frontline documentary "For Sama," which should have won the prize. I don't think the committee thought that enough people care about--or want to know--the truth or the extent of the tragedy in Syria. The film is incredible, courageous, and heartbreaking.
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@ shar persen : My thoughts precisely. Every American should see For Sama.
8
@shar persen
And if the US, under Obama, had not wanted regime change, and armed dissidents and helped them instigate a civil war in Syria, there would be no on going travesty.
Ironically, the US used the Authorization to Use Military Force AGAINST AL QAEDA... to justify ARMING AL Qaeda.
Before the US armed and instigated civil war with the purpose of ousting Assad,
Syria was not only a well functioning society, but secular, with the Assad government promoting tolerance among the many ethnicities and religions, and with women in government and all professions. Admittedly, Assad was harsh in dealing with the always restless Sunni Islamists, who were always encouraged by the US to rise against Assad.
How long did it take the US Establishment and government to accept responsibility for the overthrow of democratically elected Mossadegh in Iran?
64 years... though it was common knowledge for those of us who care about US foreign policy and its history.
4
Where are the leaders of the free world, including the one in our White House? What can be done to help? Where is the UN?
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The best thing we can do is stay out of the way. This is something like the eighth year of the rebellion and likely the last of it.
8
@Monsp : to stand by while civilians and innocent children are dying this way -- of cold and exposure and hunger -- is not morally justifiable under any possible philosophy or political belief system that I know of.
20
@Monsp No we must push for an humanitarian corridor and allow Syrian refugees once again into USA
4
As I read this, I was transported to the NYT stories about Bosnia that so heart-breakingly filled the front pages one holiday season. How can there be anything more important than helping these refugees?
17
The UN should make the Syrian govt pay for this. And make Syria make room for them. This should always be the way it is handled.
15
The US used to have a strong voice in the United Nations that would advocate for human rights. Under the Trump administration this voice is silent. This administration is complicit in genocide by their inaction and silence.
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@M Perez
The UN is hobbled by the fact that five countries have vetos over any important resolution. Guess what? Russia is one of them which means that no resolution against Russia or Syria is going to be passed.
And no, the US isn't complicit in anything. The US is not omnipotent and can't always do what it may like to.
This puts all our complaints about life in present-day USA in perspective. These folks are suffering; we are not.
68
@GBR
But if Trump and his Party are allowed to to shred the Constitution, we could see the same things here in a few years.
If you think I'm exaggerating, go read about countries that let authoritarian leaders only their Constitutions. Bloodbaths and economic disaster are the inevitable result.
If you abandon your Constitution, you get less democracy, not more.
2
Do these camps also have the corona virus.
6
This is the saddest part of technology and innovation; we have yet to harness it and face old world problems in a meaningful way. It’s not as simple as making one less gadget for a few in order to take one step forward for everyone, but it’s close.
9
And so the innocent reap what those who would fight a proxy war in the Name of Freedom and Democracy have sown. Oh what a wonderful world we live in.
42