Refugees - What not to do and what to do

The militarist cure for refugees fleeing war… more war.

The Guardian, 03/09/2015:

'While no perfect solutions present themselves, inertia punctuated with panic is the worst response. Since Syria’s plight is the most immediate moral and strategic problem, that is where Europe must begin the search for solutions. The increase in refugee numbers heading for the EU describes a collapse of hope among millions of Syrians, many displaced in neighbouring countries, that their home will be safe again in their lifetime. To begin restoring that hope will inevitably mean international intervention of some kind. The establishment of credible safe havens and the implementation of a no-fly zone must be on the table for serious consideration'.

From The Daily Telegraph, 03/09/2015:

'This refugee crisis is not going to be resolved until Britain and other western nations wake up and see the real picture: that we need to instigate military action to oust the psychopathic regimes and Islamic extremists who are forcing people like three-year-old Aylan and his family to flee their homes in their millions. It will cost money and it will cost lives. What we have to decide now is whether we are willing to pay that high a price so that we don’t have to look at another photograph of a dead child washed up on a beach. Everything else, I’m afraid, is just bleeding heart sentimentality'

From The Sun, 03/09/2015:

'Meanwhile Europe’s biggest movement of refugees since World War Two must be tackled at source. Mr Cameron and President Obama must finally get serious about bringing order to Syria, Iraq and Libya. MPs must soon approve air strikes against IS in Syria as a first step towards wiping out the death cult there and in Iraq. Much greater force will be needed. Britain must help re-establish law and order in Libya too, having ousted Colonel Gaddafi only to leave behind a power vacuum and civil war'.

From The Times, 03/08/2015:

'Resettling refugees, however, is a fraction of the battle. Failed states, even when far away, soon become everyone’s problem. Western attitudes towards military intervention have hardened since the Iraq war, and mooted action in Syria stalled in both Britain and the United States in 2013. Yet states that are allowed to fail do not swiftly recover. Unicef reports that conflict and instability in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen now prevent around 40 per cent of children from going to school. Illiteracy is rocketing. Such people do not grow up to rebuild states in which the best and brightest stay.

Most likely, it is too late for even a vast, multi- national force to return Syria to stability. Yet, with political will, enforcing safe areas and no-fly zones should not be beyond the power of the rest of the world'.

How easy it is to forget that it was the military intervention for regime change in Libya and the financing and supply of rebels in Syria that created most of the problems in the first place. Since the Afganistan War and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, violence, chaos and death have spread across the region, creating unimaginable suffering for the people who live there. We must reject any attempt to intensify this war and press for a peaceful solution, an idea that seems to fall totally outside mainstream media thinking. We must also take as many refugees as we can.

From here

And the working class answer to the refugee crisis