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Wars of Convenience

Wars of Convenience

Last updated on: April 7, 2017 at 6:57 am by Erin Wathen

Wars of Convenience 2017-04-07T06:57:49-07:00 Erin Wathen

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Just to recap…

The current administration put a ban on Syrian refugees (among others) entering our country. Because they “might” be dangerous extremists; they “might” have ulterior motives, like recruiting innocent American teenagers as terrorists, and infiltrating our government; they “might” just be jealous of our amazing American lifestyle; probably some of them just want cable.

Opportunistic scapegoating, every bit of it. Trump and his minions know, and have always known, exactly how to manipulate the deepest fears of a broad swath of the population, turning the anxiety towards an easy target. In this case, they leveraged anxiety about the growing threat of terrorism and wrapped it around widespread information about Muslims. They perpetuated the myths, and then latched onto the growing hysteria to justify a sweeping ban on immigration from predominantly Muslim countries.

Now the same man who turned these refugee children away at the gates, can stand in front of flashing cameras and cite humanitarian interests, as the justification for last night’s military action against Assad. He laments the “innocent babies” killed in a chemical weapons attack earlier this week, stating (in a barely coherent sentence of single syllable words) that “no child of God” should be made to suffer in this way.

He’s just now noticed that children are dying? They must have gotten some new cable channels at Mar-a-Lago.

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What he’s saying, in essence, is this: if you are a Muslim or brown person, you can’t come in here…because you might be dangerous. You might have ulterior motives, hidden under that head covering we find so strange… We can’t recognize your full humanity, after all, unless you look like us. Unless you eat bacon and wear bikinis and follow the Kardashians and correctly recite the 10 Commandments.

But we will sure go bomb the shit out of something and say we did it for you, because America. And freedom. And Jesus, or something.

Watch as he and his mouthpieces cover the newsfeed today, citing the heroics of anti-Nazi forces in World War II. Watch as they spin this as a heroic feat of humanitarianism, the benevolent exertion of force against a threat to the very fabric of civilization. Watch as they parade a few of our own military widows across the screen, (because there will be widows/widowers) asking them to say a few words about patriotism and sacrifice. It will be beautiful.

But it will all be a lie.

Make no mistake–this is a classic diversion tactic. This is a war-for-ratings because, Lord have mercy on us, dead children are good for ratings. This is a media firestorm to take our minds off of Russian interference in our election, and unchecked nepotism in the highest offices of the land; it is a distraction from the recent repeal of women’s rights in the workplace, the debacle of failed healthcare reform, and –lest we forget– the “nuclear” moment in which the Senate literally changed its own rules so that they could force their guy onto the Supreme Court.

Things are about to get nuclear around here, in more ways than one. Do not fall for it. Do not get distracted.

Given the fact that the President engaged in full-on global scale conflict without even consulting Congress, it may feel like we have no voice in this matter whatsoever. But do not fall for that tactic, either. We may not be able to roll back the inevitability of a war here, but don’t let that keep you silent. Keep engaging the system, by all means available to you.

First, and primarily, contact your Representatives and tell them this: now that we have acknowledged the crimes against humanity happening in that part of the world–and now that we have acknowledged our responsibility, as a global super power, to resist the evil of that regime–we can no longer refuse to welcome that country’s refugees. We can no longer pretend that the victims are the threat, and we can’t keep pretending there is such a thing as other people’s children.

We are in this now. We are contributing to the violence of the world, so it is our duty–not just as people of faith, but as citizens of the world–to provide sanctuary to those fleeing the carnage.

Our prayers for peace echo back to us as a call to action. Use the leverage of this moment to call our leaders to task on their inexcusable negligence in caring for children of war. Who are also–as our President has apparently just learned–children of a loving God.

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