Refugees, Reason, Risk, and Right (or, "Fear is the Mind-Killer")

[medicmsh]

This, in response to lots of fearful bellowing about how refugees from Syria are disguised terrorists & how right-thinking people should refuse to permit their entry into the US. I have ALL the disagreement with this

Comments

[rowyn]

There are many many topics on which I don't feel qualified to say "this is what I think will/won't work". For example, I don't actually have a lot of confidence that our screening/vetting process would keep out a terrorist who was posing as a refugee to get into the country. (OTOH, I don't know that "posing as a refugee" would be the path of least resistance even in a situation where we're expediting the process of taking in Syrian refugees. Certainly under the usual process, I expect it'd be easier for a terrorist to get in as, say, a student than as a refugee.)

Anyway, my point is less "I am sure you are wrong about the utility of screening or of helping foreign nationals to re-take their country" than "I have no idea if you are right or not, and I'm not very optimistic."

But this is minor beside the real point, which is that

(a) I'm pretty sure refugees who want a safe haven outnumber terrorists trying to get into the US by thousands to one
(b) even if terrorists we the majority, the US is better equipped to deal with them than most countries. It's not like these are people who only want to strike at US targets and are otherwise harmless. If they can't get at us, they will take out neighboring countries or just targets in Syria they dislike. I don't prize American lives more than other innocent humans. Maybe if they try it here, we can actually stop them. (This is a horrible argument, I know).
(c) it is against every principle of America and Christianity, for that matter, to turn our backs on the suffering because it involves a little risk. I bet Americans would save more lives a year by driving 10 mph slower than have been killed by terrorists in the last year, but we won't do THAT. Even if some Americans did die because of a terrorist posing as a Syrian refugee, it'd still be worth it for the benefit to the actual refugees.

I dunno if that made any sense. In any event, I figure we agree on the broad picture. :)

[medicmsh]

Actually, it makes a lot of sense. & I'm sure we don't agree on everything! We don't have to.