Children: Caught in Syrian vortex

Syrian refugee children on the streets

About one-half of the refugees streaming out of Syria are children, making this an enormously difficult matter. Many of the refugees racing towards the European Union are unaccompanied minors, including many very young children. There are reports of 3-month old infants being put on inflatable boats in this desperate exodus from the vortex of destruction that was once Syria, The Hill reported.
Indeed, Syria is no more. It is a Humpty Dumpty that fell off the wall and then was crushed by Hama rules. Hama rules were developed by Bashar Al Assad’s father. When the city of Hama in Syria started an Islamist rebellion Hafez sent troops in, killed thousands, and cemented them over. Bashar has proven to be much worse than even his murderous father. Bashar drops barrel bombs, essentially oil barrels filled with explosives on anyone that is walking, sleeping, praying, having a rare family dinner, dreaming and about to be dead.
Much of the world is joint and severally liable and culpable for this ethical and moral nightmare. We have failed the Syrian children in the worst sort of ways: from neglect, from lack of backbone to stand up for what is right, and from the moral turpitude that often passes as strategic thinking.

The U.S. did little when it could have done much early in this nightmare.  It has been generous with aid money, but has been parsimonious with real strategic and moral thinking.
The Russians blocked any real attempts to solve this issue early on in an attempt to keep a Navy Base, their people on the ground and their weapons still flowing, and Syria was one of Russia’s biggest arms markets. They are now sending aircraft, advisors and more to Syria to support the mass-murdering, nation-destroyer, Assad.

The Iranians are supporting Shia militias, sending some of their own people, and are sending Afghan fighters from Iranian camps to fight on the side of Assad. Iran also supports Hezbollah of Lebanon, which is also in the fight beside Assad.
ISIS is the spawn of the Iraq wars of the last decades, the collapse of Syria and Iraq, the vernal selfishness of many of the outside and inside parties involved, money coming from various parts of the world to support them, and also a lot of sociopathy and psychopathy. The 10 percent rule applies to this group.

Turkey has done much for the refugees that it has taken in. It has been one of the most generous countries to them.
Lebanon is being overrun with refugees. The last time that happened, then with Sunni Palestinians and this time with Sunni Syrians, the demographics of the country went topsy-turvy and a civil war broke out that cost almost 200,000 lives. Jordan is facing a flood of refugees to add to the Palestinians and others it has taken in. Its future is at risk. The entire region is at risk from the spread of an ideology or murder and revenge that could take down many more places if it is not stemmed now.

The EU is looking at one of the worst refugee crises in its modern history. The entire EU experiment is at risk as border, economic and other tensions mount. Ultra-right wing extremist groups are also growing in the EU as their economies continue to stagnate and people are looking for scapegoats.
The refugee children, some of them very young, are caught in this dangerous, swirling vortex. What would you feel like as a young child of 5, 10 or even 15 running from such violence and fear and then into the unknown?

The average time a refugee is a refugee in 19 years. Can the Middle East and the EU deal with that one? What will these children of war and exodus be like when they grow up?
Where are the world’s strategic and moral leaders on this? Where are the creative leaders who can turn this around?
Sullivan is a professor of Economics at the National Defense University and an adjunct professor of Security Studies at Georgetown University. The opinions expressed are his own.