The complex issue of Syria

I have seen a lot of going back and forth on Facebook about the Syrian refugees, and I thought that I would weigh in with my thoughts.

We are in a situation where no matter which route we choose, we will face serious consequences. Both choices are bad. It sucks to say it, but right now, ISIS has the upper hand over the United States.

If we let refugees in now, we have no way of determining which people are true refugees and which ones are undercover terrorists. Even if we do vet them really really well, we end up taking the best people and leaving the most poor and desperate. These are the people that left with few belongings and will probably have little proof that they are not dangerous. Of all the refugees, the ones that probably need our help the most will be the ones left behind, while the ones that have the potential to do the greatest good over in the middle east will be the ones accepted here.

Sifting through the thousands of refugees to find the fakes is impossible. There is little the authorities can do to really determine if the person in front of them is "good" or "bad" because people change. We hope that the person in front of us who has never done anything wrong will always be just as good, but history has shown us otherwise. Additionally, their government is corrupt, so official documents, while somewhat helpful, are not enough.

If we do not take in refugees, we leave the responsibility to our friends across the sea. Britain, France, Germany, Greece- they are asking for our help. If we don't help those countries when they need it, we are straining our relations with them.

Additionally, we are leaving millions of people to either die by the hand of Asad, or Isis or to become radicalized themselves. Aren't we in essence helping Isis/Asad by refusing assistance to the people that they want kept in their country? Isis does not want the refugees to come over to the US. They want the refugees to stay and live in their supposed Muslim paradise. If we and other nations don't take the refugees, we risk ISIS growing- simply because the people there have to join in order to survive. And if Isis grows, it will become stronger. It will attack us.

How many of us driving down the street will see a homeless person and offer to let them stay at our house? We have food, a house with extra rooms/beds, a shower, clean clothes, and the homeless person has nothing. Most of the time we don't offer anything, much less the opportunity to share our own living space. Why not? We may blame finances, but really we don't our of fear. We don't know if that person will steal our things and hurt our families. Many people in the US are wary of allowing the refugees into our country because they don't know if those allowed in will then turn around and hurt US citizens.

The ideal would be to make life in Syria safer again, so that the refugees could go home. But guess what that means! Someone has to step in and get rid of Isis. That is going to take a lot more than airstrikes, and the United States is not willing at this time to get itself involved in ANOTHER war. Except when you think about it, ISIS is a product of the war in Iraq. So really it's just a continuation of a war that we prematurely ended. Except that it didn't really end.

We already have terrorists in our country. Even with the NSA spying on all of us, they have very likely not found the terrorists already here. The US is not likely to be able to determine which Syrians are safe and which aren't. Isis claims they are planning attacks on the US right now. I wouldn't take that claim lightly. There are far too many people in the United States that are disenchanted by our culture. It doesn't take Syrian refugees to create mass chaos- it just takes a socially vulnerable individual and the free speech of the internet. However, it would make it easier for ISIS to slip into the US unnoticed.

So ultimately, allowing the Syrian refugees to come into the United States is a threat to national security. Not allowing the refugees to come in is also a threat to national security. If we take all the moderates, then there is no one left to fight for Syria and it is left to the terrorists. If we leave the moderates, then they can take out some terrorists, but will most likely be killed in the process. Either way Isis grows.