As We Create War, We Create Refugees
This past week has been a horrific eye-opener for the world and the ugly mess it’s created and allowed to continue in the Middle East.
It’s possible that a single image will change the history of this region as the world struggles with the grief and response that should be taken.
Stephen Harper’s militaristic and aggressive response to the image of Ailan Kurdi clearly illustrates that sad and pathetic path that we’ve allowed ourselves to follow under 10 years of Conservative rule and a couple of decades of neglecting the more logical, practical but albeit more challenging path of diplomacy, negotiation and successful structure of something like UN peacekeeping.
Finger-pointing and blame is all the rage right now. Is it the fault of ISIS? Syria? Our own ineptitude? Some people even blame the NDP – even though they’re not in a position of power to make things happen – for what happened to little Ailan.
And Harper’s response? Instead of seeking out a collaborative, peaceful resolution to the trap Harper has set for himself in Syria and against other so-called ISIS nations, he pushes Canada further into endless war machinations.
He is cowardly carpet bombing millions of innocent civilians in his fruitless search for the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack’. Any idiot who believes this is the answer should look to our history of the same actions and results:
- US bombing of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia from 1964-1973 in an effort to crush communist forces, with the resulting political upheaval creating some 3 million refugees from these countries
- Libya, with roughly 2 million people leaving AFTER we bombed the snot out of them
- Ukraine, with more than a million people leaving to Russia (despite Harper’s claims that Russia is trying to take over the Ukraine, why would so many go to their invader?)
The list goes on. We create the issues, we failed in our diplomacy and we turn our back on the people who need us most.
Getting back to ISIS and Syria, it’s safe to count on one thing: billions will be lost on this fruitless journey.
But that won’t stop Harper from pressing the button and talking tough while being an office-based bomber.
For all Canadian voters (those that are left, that is), please remember that as we create war, we create refugees. This is the immutable truth of failing to take the harder, diplomatic and political path of being decent human beings as opposed to war mongers.
So, my leading question in all of this (as we ask what should we do with all of these refugees we’ve created* and why haven’t we done something sooner), is how do we avoid creating refugees in the first place?
What are we doing to make their homes more tolerable as opposed to making them intolerable?
*But if you’re looking for the answer to how many refugees we should accept and how poorly the Harper government has responded over the last few years, Susan on the Soap Box has an excellent run-down of the history.
For other resources related to the refugee question, check out these stories:
http://www.nationalobserver.com/2015/09/03/news/activist-busted-harpers-surrey-campaign-stop
- Chris Alexander’s response to the situation: www.pressprogress.ca/here_are_4_other_things_chris_alexander_has_had_to_say_about_refugees
- http://www.newsana.com/canadian-politics/story/news-politics-reid-chris-alexander-just-the-latest-example-of-how-politics-debases-even-the-best-of-us
- http://ottawacitizen.com/news/politics/reid-chris-alexander-just-the-latest-example-of-how-politics-debases-even-the-best-of-us