At the Boston Review website, Aziz Z. Huq argues that US actions in Syria have endangered civilians far more than is generally recognized, and therefore the US should accept many more Syrian refugees that it currently plans to resettle. Here’s an excerpt from the piece:
Careful examination shows that the United States has shaped the Syrian war in ways that have intensified the violence and fostered greater displacement. By encouraging conflict just as it turned violent, making uncompromising demands that undermined the possibility of a negotiated international settlement, and using military force in a way that channels the Assad regime’s forces toward civilian populations, the United States has entangled itself in the Syrian refugee crisis. In light of these facts, even narrow conceptions of global justice saddle the United States with an obligation to refugees far beyond what has been acknowledged so far…
The pattern of U.S. military action and inaction in Syria has worsened the conflict. This is not to say that the United States has ever had an obligation to intervene militarily. Deploying American troops to Syria presents many difficult strategic questions, as Rajan Menon has persuasively argued. But we must also recognize that the United States is already militarily engaged in Syria. U.S. strategy has enabled Assad to focus on foes intermingled with urban populations, while simultaneously failing to lend those populations, where possible, protection from the regime’s aerial attacks. In other words, U.S. strategy has channeled violence toward civilians, with predictably dire consequences.
Image: Tanks repose in the rubble of of Azaz, north of Aleppo. Via Boston Review.