Persuasive Essay On Syrian War Refugees

With the collapse of the Syrian government and an outbreak of violence, there are 13.5 million people in Syria that are currently in need of humanitarian assistance . The hot topic in the United States is whether or not we should be accepting these war refugees into our country. The main concern is the fear that members of terrorist groups in Syria will also be making their way into the United States. The Council on American-Islamic Relations stated that, "Defeating ISIS involves projecting American ideals to the world. Governors who reject those fleeing war and persecution abandon our ideals and instead project our fears to the world.” The United States has accepted refugees ever since legislation passed the “Displaced Persons Act of 1948”. This allowed admission to the United States for hundreds of thousands of war refugees during the time of World War II . Although some argue that allowing Syrian war refugees into the United States would compromise national security, during World War II the United States proved that accepting German and Italian war refugees was not detrimental to the country. We need to learn from our past history and continue to be the humanitarian country that we have been for the last 239 years.
To fully understand the connection to World War II, we must first understand the Syrian war.

On March 15, 2011 protestors gathered in Damascus, the capital of Syria. They demanded democratic reform, the release of political prisoners, additional freedom and to end corruption. The government became enraged and opened fire on the protestors. A few days later, the protestors burned down the Ba’ath headquarters and several other government buildings. The protests shifted away from democratic reform and mainly focused on overthrowing the Assad government. The protests spread to nearly twenty cities across Syria. On April 25th 2011, the Assad government commenced a large-scale military assault on these cities. They used tanks, artillery and infantry troops, which led to the killings of hundreds of civilians. On July 29th, seven Syrian officers broke away from the government forming the Free Syrian Army.
In December of 2011, French and British forces arrived in Turkey to assist the Free Syrian Army. The United States played a significant role in this effort by providing communication equipment, airstrikes and intelligence for the rebel forces. Attacks continued and on June 12th 2012, the United Nations officially declared Syria to be in a civil war. The rebel forces continued to fight and captured Base 46; one of Syria’s largest military bases . With access to larger weapons, tensions tightened and attacks became more destructive and detrimental.
With different views and opinions, the rebel group began splitting into multiple rebel groups, such as ISIS and the Kurdish. With the Syrian government losing land and power, ISIS began to expand their territories. ISIS or the Islamic State is a group of religious extremists with brutal tactics. Their mission is to form an Islamic state by taking over Syria and parts of northern Iraq. They were so violent and radical that they were soon at war with almost every other division of the rebel forces. Their rules were so strict that hardliners like Al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia withdrew their support. ISIS is furthermore responsible for numerous suicide bombings, hostage situations involving women and children plus beheadings of their prisoners. They have taken hundreds of millions of dollars from captured banks, making them the richest terroristic organization in the world . The United States changed their focus from the Syrian government to eliminating and destroying ISIS.
With all of these diverse rebel groups and countries fighting, it leaves no room for the citizens of Syria. The Syrian government and rebel groups have no concern for the harmless lives that are being lost everyday. Neighboring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq have taken in millions of refugees that were fleeing from Syria. The United States announced on September 20th 2015, that they would accept 10,000 Syrian refugees.
Many people fear that accepting refugees into our nation will be a threat to our national security; it happens to be quite the opposite. “Since 9/11 the United States has let in 785,000 refugees. Only about a dozen have been arrested or removed from the United States due to terrorism concerns that existed prior to their resettlement in the United States None of them being Syrian.” Nearly all refugees let into the United States have not been removed or arrested.
World War II started in 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, killing and displacing hundreds of thousands Polish citizens in order to make room for their “superior Germanic race”. The Jews were forced to live in ghettos under German supervision. Britain and France then declared war on Germany. Quickly overthrowing most of Europe, Germany began to push into Russia, killing Jews in mass shootings along the way. Germany began to setup “kill centers” in Poland, sending any Jew that was in Germany occupied territory there. The allies began to push back Germany and regained their land. Germany then ordered the evacuation of these death camps. They were to be relocated to the core of Germany; Jews were forced to walk thousands of miles in order to reach their new location. This action was coined the term death marches . The camps were overcrowded, filthy and had very little supplies- death becoming inescapable.
By spring of 1945, the war was over and allied forces such as the United States, uncovered the extent of these massive acts of genocide. Six million people were systematically killed during the holocaust . Those few who survived were broken and were clueless as to how to continue with their life. They saw their family members being murdered right in front of their own eyes. How does one continue living life after spending years in hell and agony?
After the war, people were in disarray. Their homes and families were gone, leaving them with nothing. Countries were hesitant to take in the enormous number of refugees. The United States feared that the German government would blackmail the Jews and force them to become spies. It wasn’t until Franklin Roosevelt was under pressure from government officials and the American Jewish community that he then took action to rescue the Jews.
The United States took in 22,950 displaced Jewish refugees between 1945 and 1947. The executive order was from President Harry Truman and was called the Truman Directive. In 1948 congress passed legislation to accept 400,000 more displaced refugees, Jews were only about 20% of the admitted. The rest were made up of Christians from Eastern Europe that were forced into camps by Germany. By 1952, the United States accepted 137,450 displaced Jewish refugees along with 100,000 other displaced refugees.
The United States never saw any negative effects from accepting refugees from World War II so why do we all of a sudden not want to help?

We need to take what we have learned from World War II and apply it to our current situation. There are 4.3 million Syrian refugees and 6.6 million Syrians that are displaced within Syria. This is the greatest amount of refugees the world has seen since World War II. Alexander Betts, Director of Oxford’s refugee center, said “nations have locked down their borders, crammed refugees into transit camps, and said they won't take in Muslims, creating alarming echoes of the past for WWII historians and Holocaust

survivors.”
On December 6th 2015, President Obama addressed the Nation and said, “I am confident that we will succeed in this mission because we are on the right side of history”. President Obama is telling the nation that when history looks back on us, we will be remembered as the ones who made a difference, who did the right thing in a time of crisis.