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His Name Is Aylan
His name is Aylan and he is Kurdish, the small child I see lying face down on a European shore. He died as his family tried to escape Syria, and the images of his tiny lifeless body has sparked an understandable anger across the world.
I feel the same outrage in me, and I know where I want to place that pain and condemnation – at the feet of President Barack Obama.
For the better (or worse) part of six years, Obama has tilted the world to this point, where children float up on foreign shores and families place their fate and belongings in a broken vessel to go anywhere other than where they’ve been.
An hour or so before I saw this picture, I found out that Senator Barbara Mikulski became the deciding vote needed to secure Obama’s Iran deal in Congress. Because the president has been single-mindedly focused on that deal — because he’s been willing to subordinate every other concern in the Middle East to cementing his legacy — we see floods of Arab refugees seeking shelter on European soil. Those who cannot flee are either displaced within the region or become unwilling stars of one of the many horror videos touted by that group with many names and little sovereignty.
There was a time not that long ago when ISIS did not exist and when I had never seen a man beheaded or burnt alive for the world to see. Now images of Yazidi girls sold in slavery pass by my feed alongside memes and selfies. I had gotten so desensitized that I almost forgot that this brutality hasn’t always been part of my existence.
Then I saw that boy, like trash on the beach, with no one to claim him, and I remembered. I remembered how Obama chose to empower Assad, partner with Iran, forgo red lines and destabilize the Middle East.
This is supposed to be the President of humane ideals and progressive values. Yet on his watch young girls are systematically raped in the Levant while the White House spends its time fretting about hookups on college campuses? This commander-in-chief says all options are on the table — yet when Americans are beheaded on screen his response consists of offering PR advice to the terrorists responsible? Not only can’t I make sense of it, but I cannot fathom where the world will be in the 505 days we have left until this man leaves office.
His name is Aylan. He was three years old and he lost his life because his family decided that the unknown on the other side of that dark ocean was safer than the hellhole their country had become. To me, that is, and will forever be, President Obama’s legacy: That child with his face in the water, and the growing evil that placed him there.
His name is Aylan. And his life matters too.
Published in General
Only when its government fails to live up to its values.
And I don’t just blame the government, I blame the natavists who refuse to let in war refugees fleeing for their lives.
And it’s not even American symbolism, per se. It’s symbolism devised by the Puritan settlers of just one colony: Massachusetts Bay.
OK, let’s say a tenth of them are legit. Or even assume half are legit, and the rest are all “Welfare states, here we come!”
How do you separate the two? And be honest, if Europe (and the US/Canada) decides to take them, do you even think they’ll try? Do you even think they’ll make the distinction? Do you honestly think any of these countries will have the stones to say “Ok, when the crisis is over, you’re going home. You can’t stay here forever”.
Nope. Any country that takes these people will never be rid of them. Ever.
Actually, you’re the one who immediately lapsed into absurdity.
1. Suggesting we’d have to take in a billion immigrants.
2. Suggesting that since we can’t take in a billion, we can’t take in Syrian Civil War refugees.
Pictures like that one put me in tears; I have a 3 year old boy, and human suffering is not easy to turn away from.
That said, the fact of human suffering, which occurs at extremely high volumes around the world – especially in the middle east – is no argument in favor of open borders and a massive welfare state.
This blatantly idiotic comment is proof of why that is the case. The exact same reasoning argues for free housing, single-payer healthcare, UBI, etc… Additionally, Fred, it is misleading, as the problem with open borders is Mexican immigration, not Syrian refugees. Next person to use a horrifying picture like this one and an argument as stupid as Fred’s gets a punch in the nose.
I blame a violent, primitive ideology – Islam – for the crisis. If you want to help them so badly, join a charity operating in the Middle East or become one of those soldiers-of-fortune fighting ISIS. You have no right whatsoever to demand charity from law-abiding American citizens, whom you attempt to shame and slander as “nativists.”
Oh, come now, gentlemen. The answer is obvious. Invade Canada, then establish it as a holding facility for potential immigrants to the United States. If you can do a ten-year stretch in Canada without killing yourself or anyone else, we let you come to the real America.
I think we can all agree, that’s what the Founding Fathers would have wanted.
OK, let’s start with your house then. Anyone clamoring to bring these people in should have to open their own homes to them. THAT would be humanitarian.
Sounds like a fantastic argument for reforming our welfare system, and I think we should get on it right away. And if we can’t do both — welcome the tired, poor, huddle masses of own making and reform a broken system that could allow some of them to abuse our generosity — then shame on us.
Annika and Aylan have put a face on a tragic story, the terrible individual consequences of a terrible high-level policy.
To impute motives (desire of welfare) is fine, but those should be held loosely.
Perhaps before we start to devour each other over this, we all take a deep breath. Clearly, this is a tragedy, and that photograph is devastating. The first reaction is going to be emotional. As a mother, I am horrified. But we have to realize that the migration is the symptom of a larger problem, which is a destabilized and violent Middle East and North Africa. Until you solve that problem, the migration will continue.
My nose is right here, when you’re ready.
I don’t know Fred and I hesitate to speak for him, but I would be surprised if he’s a supporter of both open borders and the current welfare system. After all, this is still Ricochet, right? Argue Fred is wrong about open borders because Fred isn’t also laying out a plan for reforming welfare here in the comments isn’t exactly fair of you, is it?
You’re right. I wasn’t breathing. Explains both the irritability and the blue lips. Thank you.
And I agree with you. This isn’t just about the immediate problem of the refugees because there are worse horrors occurring in the places they’re fleeing. If we care about the people who can get out, we certainly have to care about the ones who don’t.
There seems to be two separate debates going on here.
1. My point was that the reason these children are dying on beaches is that a President Obama has chosen not to fight Isis, that he HAS chosen to empower The dark forces of the Middle East (lately through the Iran deal) and that he has made a clear point of eliminating any form of American exceptionalism and its historic role as world conscience and savior of the meek. That’s his legacy, in my view, and the ripple effect can be seen and will be seen all across the world
2. Immigration. As a Jew I am on principal pro-immigration, partially because I wouldn’t be alive today if it wasn’t for immigration. I am also pro national identity, clear borders and very clear rules for immigrants once they arrive. I often use the U.S., a nation of immigrants, as an example, because in the U.S. One refers to oneself as Jewish-American, Irish-American, African-American, etc, the common core being the word AMERICAN. That connotes the pride and worth bound to being an American, the identity and patriotism that it takes to successfully integrate into a society. Europe does not have that. We have no self worth, no national identities and no nation states, and one cannot teach what one does not know nor can we give away what we do not have. Meaning: there is a ideological vacuum in Europe that easily and swiftly is being filled by Muslim extremism and we have lost control over our immigration. I believe I can be pro positive immigration while at the same time see how and why this went wrong. So, my piece was not a statement on a carte blanche immigration policy, but rather a statement for intervention in the name of humanity, preventing the immigration crisis we see today while also protecting the values that will enable a national identity that will help manage and mantain immigration in the most positive sense of the word.
I hope this makes my point, as I am currently in Rome and its after 1 am under the influence of both delicious carbs and fatigue.
I certainly agree that the proper solution to the refugee crisis is to eliminate the cause of the crisis. Resources spent on absorbing refugees would almost certainly be better spent on war efforts to destroy ISIS. Of course, that can’t start really until at least January 2017. Hmm.
This is NOT an immigration issue so stop turning this into a stupid Trump post. This administration’s complete lack of a coherent foreign “policy” has turned a lot of this world into a giant crap storm and to deny Obama’s culpability is ridiculous. Things are worse, way worse, and that isn’t random chance. Like the OP stated, people being burned alive and beheaded on live video was not exactly commonplace before these idiots decided we needed to “reach out” to these barbarians and empower Iran. Yes there has always been bad stuff and no it isn’t all America’s fault but good lord look around.
This is another thing to be angry about- the Kurds are about the only surviving people in the area who seem to have anything other than hated for the United States- and we have treated them terribly.
We should be arming them to the teeth, so much so that no Kurd should have any need to attempt to flee to Europe, because they could simply go to their own country.
Or just stay there, protected by their own army.
Someday, I expect, a future equivalent of Bernard Lewis is going to write a book entitled. “America: What Went Wrong.”
A key foreign policy failure, I predict that future author will conclude, will be just how casually the United States betrays the people friendly to it.
In my view it began with the people of the Philippines, abandoned to the mercies of Imperial Japan, then liberated at great cost to everyone. This continued to the people of South Vietnam, who were murdered in great numbers after the US departed, and continues to this day, as not only were the Christians of the Middle East abandoned but so were the Kurds.
Sad and terrible. That’s what we really should regret.
Too late now, alas.
What are you doing in Rome?
I think you misunderstand. The picture is of a dead child laying face down on the beach. Literally nobody on either side of the argument would allow that to happen. I would take that child into my own home before allowing it. Fred’s argument is based on that picture, and the thrust of it is that because we do not support open borders, we are child murderers. What I said was “next person to use a horrifying picture like that and an argument as stupid as…” and I sincerely hope that that isn’t what you’re embracing.
Yes, it is perfectly legitimate to discuss open borders, but no, my argument is not that it is invalid without a plan to reform welfare. I think it is foolish without a plan to reform welfare, but the two can certainly be broken up into different discussions. The tactic, however, is a leftist tactic that supports all the things I listed above. Show me a picture of a woman who has just been raped by her own father and then say “good thing we’re pro-life, huh?” That is impugning a support of that rape to me due to my stance on abortion. Show me a dead homeless man on the streets with a caption “this man could have been saved by a $200 procedure that most of us have in our insurance plans” is to essentially say that I personally killed that man.
Human suffering exists; but if you start to snap photos of human suffering and then suggest that your opponents support that suffering is both illogical and absurd. If that is your strategy, then full-on socialism is the only legitimate end to your argument. Of course, I’ve got some video and pictures from the old Soviet Union …. whoops.
It is the fault of ISIS and ISIS alone. That our President chooses to take that threat lightly is only accented by this sort of thing – and no, Obama is also not personally responsible for this kid, but I do wish he would be more serious about our foreign policy.
Of course, the same people who are arguing for open borders are also arguing for isolationism, and the consistency in that argument is impressive, huh?
Annika, I’m glad to see that you’re willing to distinguish, though, and I agree with every word I’ve quoted here.
I do think it is legitimate to show pictures of dead bodies (good lord, ISIS has presented quite a few, eh?) and argue that we should be serious about foreign policy. I don’t think it is legitimate to show those same pictures and argue that this is somehow because we do not allow more immigration. How many millions of dead bodies throughout the world should we be bringing into this country? A big part of immigration must necessarily be a sound foreign policy, or else we’re just a dump for all the world’s refugees, and those awful things driving people out will flourish all the more.
There is no doubt that Obama’s feckless foreign policy is indirectly responsible for the death of this boy and thousands like him. But when your aim is to defenestrate the US you are more than willing to sacrifice a few(thousand) innocents. After all, things will be so much better in the socialist utopia to come!
However, let us not forget that the American people voted for this man twice so I guess you could say that everyone who voted for him shares some responsibility as well.
It’s the general trend of Obama to empower our enemies and frustrate (if they are lucky) our allies. It’s clear back to backstabbing the Poles over missile defense and ignoring the Green Movement in Iran. Yes, ISIS is responsible for that specific atrocity but as I recall there was no such thing as ISIS before Obama’s pathetic administration. I don’t care about the borders argument when it comes to pointing out this is the first anti-American administration in history. I do not agree with the premise that the child pictured would have died regardless. There is no way to know that but I do believe hundreds of thousands have died as a result of a feckless U.S administration and those that voted for him.
There is a crisis on several different fronts that this photo reveals.
First there is an awful irony in the fact that Muslims have to seek refuge in Christian nations from their co-religionists.
Secondly there comes a time to kill. I know of no other way to say this. ISIS or the du jour Islamicist must be stopped. I hear the complaints from politicians that we are passing on debt to our children yet we are willing to pass on death as well. When one looks at this wee one lying dead on a beach I cannot help but remember a generation of young Americans washed up on beaches in France and on lonely beaches in the Pacific. We have become cowards and a cowards death awaits, our turn will come. It came once on 9/11 and we have learned nothing from that day. Admitting we are cowards is one thing, to pretend that a nation that fought and won a war that spanned two oceans cannot defeat this enemy is nonsense.
It’s very likely that ISIS would not have gained power if Obama had not pulled all of our troops from Iraq, since that is where they started.
An ounce of prevention would’ve been worth several pounds of cure in this case.
What I think of when I see this picture is that we have become arrogant in thinking we deserve our safety. Yes, we work for it. Yes, we pay for it. But mostly we have by accident of birth. We were born in (or born rich enough to emigrate to) a mostly safe country.
His name is Aylan. He is at most 3 years old. He is not taking a nap in the surf. He did not just trip and is a moment away from getting up crying and running to his mother.
He is dead!
Tens of thousands of innocents in the middle East are dead. Because of a perverted version of a religion. Until we (decent humans in this world) stop the evil perverts, we are just as responsible for the beheading, rape, torture and other vile acts as those who do it. And for the fate of Aylan.
So far, there have been tens of thousands of children killed in Syria. So no particular reason to focus on this one, except for the shocking visual. We don’t have photos of the others but some kids were torn to bits by barrel bombs, others were gassed, others buried alive under rubble. All these deaths were unconscionable and awful.
There is certainly a propaganda element here (not to diminish the horror of the death). If you are appalled, press for a complete solution for Syria. There is incredible suffering over there.
And no, Obama is not responsible. Staying out of someone else’s war does not make you responsible for the victims of that war. That is certainly a strange logic.
ISIS and Assad are at fault, yes. However, I believe Obama’s ideology requires him to believe that because America is big and powerful and imperialistic, that no matter how bad ISIS or Assad might seem, oppression by the US is worse. If Obama had anticipated in 2009 what the effects of his policies would be, would he have gone a different route? I don’t know. I tend to think he would plunge ahead anyway, because at least in foreign policy, ending American arrogance and imperialism is his absolutely primary objective.