Syria 2

I have been the subject of much vituperation. Some of it was obscene and all of it unnecessary. It was a typical ad hominem argument that failed to tackle the issues in hand. Those issues were about Syria.

But I get ahead of myself.

The initial comment was that, in the light of the severe bombardment that they are experiencing, the Syrians should get out.

In the first place this suggestion is trite and logistically unsupportable.

The same could be said for those overwhelmed by conflict everywhere since the first Industrial War, which was the American Civil War, of course.

In spite of that many Syrians have made it out of their country. They have suffered great hardships and extreme danger in doing so. It has not been cheap for them especially as they have been caught up in a stream of economic refugees from elsewhere.

This horde of refugees has made its way, by hook or by crook, into Europe for the most part. Europe has been deluged with a great mass of humanity – both war refugees and economic migrants/refugees.

The difficulty, for Europeans, is sorting out which is which. Lies will have been told, paperwork left behind, families split up and, especially for the people fleeing a combat zone, access to official documents that could verify their identity will be next to impossible.

So the first step is how to get out? Yes, as above, many have made it but not all by a very long chalk. The majority, as ever, are stuck behind.

Then there is another problem. Where will they go? Europe is inundated and has suffered the backlash from that multitude in terms of criminal activity. There are sporadic reports of rape and robbery committed by the refugees, it is said. Whether Syrians commit those atrocities is hard to judge since most reports from the countries involved are largely hearsay and spoken as a knee-jerk reaction to the offence.

Most of the countries surrounding Syria will have nothing to do with the refugees. They have their reasons, no doubt. Saudi is said to have erected tent cities for refugees and has quietly accepted a large number into their midst. As for the other Gulf States there is no evidence one way or another.

The USA has already decreed that they will take no more and other countries are shy of accepting any in the first place.

Which brings me back to the abuse.

It is hard to imagine what it is like to be subjected to constant ear-splitting noise that can, without warning, turn your existence into an agonising termination.

As a result I mentioned, as an allegorical aside, that NATO should bomb the s**t out of the US so that the citizenry of the country would know what it was like to suffer as so many have suffered at the hands of the US military might.

Of course NATO would do no such thing and nor should I expect it to do so. But the abuse began.

America has not been bombed by another country. Yes, I understand that 11/9 was traumatic but it was localised and it was all over in a few hours – with the exception of those individuals who had physical and mental injury that continued into their future.

The point is that New York, should it be gutted on a daily basis and Broadway’ lights extinguished in a smoking ruin; if Denver was continuously bombarded by an anonymous enemy; if San Francisco was pounded with barrel bombs endlessly day and night – how would the residents feel?

No doubt they would be huddled in their basements shivering in terror wondering if the next pummelling attack would signal their last few minutes on this earth?

Where would they take the injured and dying with the infrastructure lying all around as rubble across the streets? The hospitals, as gutted, floorless shells would be an empty promise of aid.

How would they feel?

Quaking in a cellar pleading with the drones and the bombers that you are not your President is of no consequence to a Tomahawk missile; screaming at the sky to tell the screeching aircraft that there are innocent children in the rubble will hold no hope.

How would you feel?

This is the situation in Syria as it has been the situation in many countries that have been under the heel of one military power or another.

In some far off Middle Eastern state whose location is, very likely, not just a mystery but also an irrelevance, men, women and children are dying. They are being torn apart, ripped open, discarded.

If there were photos of Chicago with rows of bodies, many of them small, wrapped in white sheets, how would you feel?

These are not photos in comic books, this is not CGI, this is not a Hollywood spectacular, this is real life for thousands of people. It is also real death and real agony.

How do you feel?

How would you get them out?