If the seeds of the current Syrian refugee crisis were planted and fertilized long ago, then the weeds were watered by inaction and poor policy and allowed to choke and overpower the moderates of this once great nation.
Assad’s poor policy was to be expected. He tipped his hand long ago when he began to bomb his own people. It was at that point that other leaders had a chance to intervene. Plenty of journalists argued for it in articles or via social media at the time. I am pleased to say I was one of them. A few of the braver, more connected ones are no longer with us as a result.
If you care to wade back through my social media feed and twitter account to 2012 you will see that I argued at the time for a targeted and semi-diplomatic, small team strategic military intervention to remove and relocate Assad from Syria. I argued this at the time based initially on humanitarian principles and human rights law. I feared for the future of the Syrian civilians caught in the indiscriminate bombing campaign by their elected lunatic du jour. As time went on I became increasingly concerned at the time for the repercussions of inaction. I was right to be. As the World watched in horror rebels hardened into something far worse, cities became images of bombed out shells and the flow of refugees gathered pace. At this point European and International leaders could have got together and discussed an integrated policy. They could have intervened to stop the bombings, attempted to secure the country, installed a peacekeeping force, stemmed the flow of refugees and begun the process of rebuilding. At the very least they could have agreed a contingency plan for processing and relocating refugees to share the burden. I argued for this at the time, even tweeting several political leaders directly. Again my voice went either unheard or was ignored. I argued for peace talks but that Assad had no long-term place in these.
Now, leaders are playing catch up I ask myself how many lives could have been saved? How many people might not have become extremists? And when will the political leaders of individual nations who ignored it be held accountable to the very human rights law put in place after WW2 to avert a similar catastrophe to the one we are seeing now? Copyright Victoria Luckie MA. These are my personal opinions. For publication and syndication enquirues please contact me on victoria@alexcabrini.com
First put online at 4am. Amended to resolve typo at 3pm.