History Will Judge America on Syrian Refugee Crisis As "Shameful"

Trinity College's Vijay Prashad says lawmakers anti-refugee stance is more about politics than technicalities, as many refugees have been screened for more than two years - November 22, 2015

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Bio

Vijay Prashad is the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College. He is the author of sixteen books, including The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South (Verso, 2013), Arab Spring, Libyan Winter (AK, 2012), (co-edited with Paul Amar) Dispatches from the Arab Spring (2013), and No Free Left: The Futures of Indian Communism (Leftward Press, 2015). Vijay's latest book is Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War and Occupation. Vijay is the chief editor at Leftward Press, and writes regularly for The Hindu, Frontline, Jadaliyya, Counterpunch, Himal and Bol.

snip* DESVARIEUX: So Vijay, what do you think are the main points missing in the conversation when we talk about the Syrian refugee crisis?

PRASHAD: What can you say? I mean, look, the fact is that in about 20 years or 30 years, a historian is going to look back at the events of these last few weeks and is going to judge Washington, I think, very poorly. It's a national shame that these governors and so many politicians have been fearmongering about people who are essentially fleeing from chaos and war, and you know, have been sitting in refugee camps for years being scrutinized by the United Nations Relief Organization, by the State Department, you know, by various entities before they get in this very short queue of 10,000 people to come to the United States. Half the population of Syria is displaced. There are millions of refugees in camps in Lebanon, in Jordan, in Turkey. There are refugees from Syria in camps in Egypt. There are even, believe it or not, Syrian refugees in Iraq, given that there are Iraqi refugees in Jordan.

I mean, these people have suffered greatly. They have been under surveillance by the UN. And yet, despite all that, there is this really hateful and I think intolerant conversation, particularly among Republicans but not, you know, merely Republicans. Democrats also have been really quite shameful. This coming right after the attacks in Beirut, in Paris, and now the ongoing attack in Mali. If, indeed, Al-Qaeda and ISIS want to make this a war of civilizations, in a sense the American politicians have met them toe-to-toe at the line.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=15135

The White House

#RefugeesWelcome By the Numbers: What You Need to Know about Syrian Refugees in the U.S.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1016137466