Syrian refugees: fight for your country

It’s heartbreaking to watch all of the refugees from Syria fleeing their country. Literally running for their lives and sometimes, often, losing their lives. The desperation on their faces tells the story. The faces on the children clinging to their parents for protection, not fully understanding what’s happening to them is hard to witness. That is a life experience no child, or adult should ever have to go through. We can only hope the nightmare of these days becomes a distant memory for all of them.

These people didn’t ask to be displaced. Lack of leadership, a corrupt government, throw in some terrorists, and witness what demise can come to a country. Fight, fight for your country….

We are lucky in this country, in this day, to not have to worry about having to flee our country. In my lifetime, I know I will never have to experience what these people are going through. We should be a grateful nation. Our war for our country ended long ago. We declared our independence from England in 1776, but not without many battles, and many lives lost. Our land and freedom was worth fighting for.

The American Revolution was a political upheaval that took place between 1765 and 1783 during which colonists in the Thirteen American Colonies rejected the British monarchy and aristocracy, overthrew the authority of Great Britain, and founded the United States of America. (American Revolution)

Do people today have what the Minutemen in America had in 1775/1776? What courage did it take to stand up to another country, to fight for your country?

The title “minutemen” was formally adopted the year before the American Revolution started. At that time, in October of 1774, the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts voted to enroll 12,000 men under the title of Minutemen — volunteers who would be ready at a minute’s warning to take to the field with arms.

When I see governments in other countries, committing atrocities, and the citizens fleeing, I want to scream fight, fight for your country!

The unrest began in the early spring of 2011 within the context of Arab Spring protests, with nationwide protests against President Bashar al-Assad‘s government, whose forces responded with violent crackdowns.)

Easier said than done, I know, but the alternative is becoming a refugee, a displaced person, with no country of their own. I would fight for my country, not seeing myself living anywhere else, not wanting to live anywhere else.

I don’t know how to combat many factions fighting for a region, especially one of those factions being a terrorist organization, ISIL. It’s a different kind of war to be fought, for sure. I haven’t been to Syria; I haven’t had to live in that kind of horror. I don’t know where you begin to fight, but I think fight, you must.

The tragedy now is that it has escalated to the point where there is now a refugee crisis. (refugee: a person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster.) Forced… forced to leave their country.

The United States came under pressure to do more to help. David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee and a former British foreign secretary, called on Washington to bring out “the kind of leadership America has shown on these kind of issues” in the past. (MSN)

I’m not sure relocating all of these refugees is the answer. These people are proud to be Syrian. They’re proud of who they are and where they come from, and they should be, as we all are of our countries. So, I wonder, will they be happy in another land that they were forced to go to? Will they truly be able to leave their country behind, and become citizens of their new country? Can they swear allegiance to their new lands, or will they be radicalized?

Ordering countries to accept a certain number of refugees is not the answer. What if they don’t have the means or ability to absorb these people, what happens then? Greece for instance, they’re having their own problems, adding more mouths to feed and house could be devastating to that country. Our world leaders should be able to come up with a better remedy than that; nobody wins if the host country isn’t able to help.

In America, we are a land of immigrants, not refugees, immigrants, it’s different. Immigrants migrated here because they wanted to come to America. They wanted to be American. It was a choice, for a better life, or for the opportunity of a better life. They opened businesses, bought homes, raised families, and became Americans.

These new immigrants (former refugees) might not have that same motivation because it’s not their choice to leave Syria. I think they will always long for their country and have an allegiance to it, and possibly, never quite acclimate to their new environment, and therefore, never really be happy. Fight, fight for your country.

And then there’s the fact that there could be a terrorist amongst them, claiming asylum. It’s possible, and probable. Americans will never forget September 11^th, and here in Boston, we are always aware that the 9/11 terrorists flew out of our airport, terrorists bombed our marathon, we can’t allow a refugee/terrorist to enter, but how can we prevent it in the chaos of the refugee crisis?

I hope these countries can find some minutemen of their own to stand up to their oppressors, and take back their countries, take back their land, and have a place to call home that is truly their home. No human should be homeless, or without a country.