By DOUGLAS REILLYLos Alamos
We read and hear everyday of the increasing humanitarian crisis of hundreds of thousands of refugee families and unaccompanied children trying to escape the fighting and dying in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and other countries.
The photos of temporary camps in Turkey, Greece, Italy, other European countries, and the Middle East states named above, leave me horrified by this human disaster.
The United States bears considerable blame for this situation; yet GOP politicians, including our Governor Martínez, refuse to accept refugees. The US is sending considerable funds to help the countries deluged with refugees, but our government has stated we would accept a pitiful 10-30,000 refugees, and these must go through a 2+ year vetting process before they can enter.
We should realize our Iraq war was illegal, immoral, and totally unnecessary. * The Shia/Sunni problem dates back to the beginning of Islam in the 7th century.
However, prior to the Iraq war, there was a fragile truce between the two sects. Our war and actions during and afterwards** destroyed this truce and led directly to the rise of the Islamic State (also called Daech). The US should be ashamed and rethink our present resistance to accepting these refugees.
Also, our policy of backing some rebel groups, prolonging the Syrian civil war, and demanding the demise of President Assad, only prolongs the suffering and deaths of the Syrian people. One call to President Putin suggesting the USA would support his goal of ending the Syrian Civil War, would go a long way toward ending the suffering in Syria and the refugee crisis continuing in Europe.
* The Iraq war led to almost 10,000 deaths of military people from the USA and coalition partners. It also caused the death of 500,000 to one millions Iraqis. We had no business there, and the blame rests on the shoulders of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
* We mistakenly disbanded the Iraqi military and turned the government over to a Shia President, Malachi. That action led to a blood bath of the Sunni minority in Iraq; IS a Sunni movement supported by other Sunni states, especially the Wahhabi (Sunni) Saudi Arabia.
