The Syrian War continues unabated. The number of Syrian refugees out of the country is huge, over 2.5 million. They are flowing into neighboring countries and enduring tough conditions. An estimated 4 million Syrians are displaced inside the country, and 6 million Syrians need help. The war dead in Syria number approximately 200,000.

The neocons have supported the war to bring down Assad from the outset. They count the misery endured by Syrian refugees, which particularly affects children, as nothing. Nothing at all. They regularly call for greater American intervention in this war. In 2011 and 2012, they renewed their calls for the U.S. to intervene more deeply than it already has. U.S. allies in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have been supporting the rebel groups materially. These groups are now dominated by Islamic fundamentalists.

Obama proposes to resettle a small number of Syrian refugees in America. This is a token and supremely cynical ploy. It is no real solution to the problem. Obama fails to acknowledge the continuing and increasing American role in contributing to the refugee problems. He strongly called for Assad to go and supported the rebels. He has significantly augmented the U.S. support for rebels. He is already bombing Syria (and Iraq). He has already augmented forces in Iraq. Plans for the re-introduction of boots on the ground are in the works. Like the neocons who do not recognize the hugely negative impact of their policies on people who live in these Middle Eastern countries, Obama is intent on bringing down Assad and weakening Iran, even though the wider unintended effects of this near 4-year old war may well work against the U.S. government and America. If Obama really cared about Syrians, he would never have encouraged the rebellion and he would not now be ramping up American military activity on its behalf. He knows full well the devastation wrought in civil wars. Obama doesn’t care about the war’s effects on Syrians any more than the neocons do, and they care not at all. Obama’s compassionate words for disadvantaged and poor people are, I believe, really fake and feigned posturing for political and other ends of his. If he really cared about ordinary people, would he have encouraged this civil war and the war in Ukraine? Would he have launched sanctions against Russia that are surely harming ordinary Russians? He and his advisers full well know that these sanctions have broadly negative economic effects, just as sanctions against Iraq and Iran have had.

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