Obama administration looks to bring thousands of Syrian refugees to America. Yahoo/AP

Syrian refugees in Jordan. Yahoo/AP

Security concerns are being raised by Barack Obama's plan to bring thousands of Syrian refugees to the United States. Yahoo/AP. The plan would bring thousands of refugees to America, provide them with English classes, homes, and job training. Most of the refugees would be women and children. Critics say that there is no way to properly screen these people too root out potential terrorists. In a failed country like Syria the system for vetting these refugees have broken down. 3.8 million refugees have fled Syria since the start of the civil war with many settling in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Republicans in congress want to know how many refugees will be accepted and what is to be done to make sure that none of them are terrorists. Refugees have caused problems in America before, especially those from the Iraq war. 

My Comment:

There are other strong objections to this besides just the terrorism angle. Obviously the money spent on these refugees could be better spent on people that are already in the United States. Spending money to help people is fine, but our people should come first. There is also the fact that these people will compete with others to find work. Sure what happened in Syria was a tragedy but that doesn't outweigh the fact that these people will take jobs that others here desperately need. Those people won't be able to compete due to preferential treatment for refugees. I have seen this happen before with the Iraqi refugees from the last decade or so. 

The second factor is that I really don't see these people succeeding if they are given new places to live. Syria is well on its way to being a failed state, and if their best and brightest flee (and believe me, it will mostly be the upper and middle class that escape) then they won't be able to recover. It's bad for both the United States and Syria and it really doesn't benefit anyone other then the refugees. Syria will lose its best people but they won't be upper class or middle class when they get here. Most of them will be lower class, with only a few advancing over time. You will get a lot of doctors and engineers working menial jobs because they won't be up to American standards. The much better choice would be for these people to stay in Syria and fight, and preserve their social standing and help Syria rebuild after the war is over. Sure, many will die, but the rebuilding process will go much smoother, leading to less deaths over time. That argument isn't likely to convince many Syrians though...  

Of course with terrorism being the hot button issue, this refugee program would be a great way for a long term sleeper agent to enter the country. It would also create yet another community for radical Islam to draw western recruits from as these refugees grow. Since that problem is largely related to Sunni Arabs, I would be less hesitant to offer asylum to other groups, like Christians, Shia, Alwatie, Kurds and all the other various minorities in the region. Still, none of this seems like a good idea, from a purely practical standpoint. Besides, this isn't like Iraq where we started the war. We don't have an obligation to the people of Syria. 

Unfortunately these arguments will likely be trumped by altruism. It's hard to get too mad at people that genuinely want to help those that are unfortunate. But like all decisions, this one will have unintended consequences. If we must take in Syrian refugees, and I doubt I will be able to convince people that we don't have too, then we should take as many precautions against infiltrators as we can. Obama needs to explain clearly how the government is going to vet these people. He should also make a case for why we should help the Syrians before helping our own people.