ptown_trojans_1;1834987 wrote:Long post warning.
Some know, some may forget, but I spent a summer abroad on Syria in 2005. It was a language program at the University of Damascus. I stayed in the Christian quarters of the old city of Damascus and lived with a wonderful family along with fellow Ohio State and a few Michigan students. But, I established great friendships and bonds with the people I met as I traveled around the country. I visited the city of Aleppo, the citadel that is now largely destroyed, as well as other cities, Homs included.
I have been following the crisis in Syria since it started in March 2011. I was very critical of the Obama White House for the Red Line and not fully supporting any of the rebel groups more effectively. The humanitarian crisis is the greatest seen since WWII. Some of the people I have met have resettled in Europe and elsewhere, but others I have lost touch with and assume they are lost forever.
That is where my anger comes from.
When the order was announced, I had a friend whose Synagogue sponsored a family. That family was on the flight back, had a place to live, and everything. Now, they cannot and will not make the trip to the U.S. as they are suspended indefinitely. They do now know what they are going to do, and his Synagogue is trying to explore options for them. That is the sad part. People that had already waited up to 2 years were on their way over and now their entire lives are turned upside down again.
I get why the order was signed, sure, we do need to make sure we do not let in the bad people. But, to also not let in the people, the women and children, old ladies, etc., that already have went through the UN process, have gone through the DOD as well and have sponsors is just a disgrace to me. The whole green card thing too is just a mess.
The order was not well thought out, it did not include DHS or DOD officials and was largely written, if not fully, by the White House, with zero legal oversight.
Also, the order limits that Iraqi’s that translated for our soldiers during the war. The DOD is now trying to exempt them, but really if the DOD was brought in from the start, they would have been exempted
The whole purpose was to make us safer right? Well, the fact that it does not limit other countries does not do that. If I was ISIS, I would just use people from other counties not on the list. Easy. It does not make us safer. It is already a tool for ISIS to recruit more members. They can say, look, the U.S. does really hate Islam now, turn against the west.
Again, I get why the order was signed, but the execution and implementation of it was so sloppy it has done much more harm than good. I do hope the restrictions, bans (even Trump used that today on twitter) is lifted after the 90-120 days, and I do hope the Green card issue is resolved.
I'll agree with the majority of your post here. Poorly written and poorly executed. They rushed this one out and they did not need to do so. In the cases such as the one you mentioned above, those people should not have been stopped.