At least two U.S. governors have said they won’t accept refugees from war-torn Syria.
I’ve asked Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s office if he has thoughts on taking any of those streaming from Syria.
We have an agency that works to resettle refugees, though Arkansas in recent years hasn’t received many refugees. In 2014, 14 refugees resettled in Arkansas.
Arkansas Matters notes that no Syrians have been settled in Arkansas as yet.
Meanwhile, as concern about adequate vetting of refugees rises, investigation of the Paris attacks shows most of the attackers were French nationals and evidence grows that planning was carried on by French citizens living in Belgium. One of the attackers carried a Syrian passport. One report says a Belgian was the mastermind.
Paul Krugman invokes FDR today — the harm of fear.
So what was Friday’s attack about? Killing random people in restaurants and at concerts is a strategy that reflects its perpetrators’ fundamental weakness. It isn’t going to establish a caliphate in Paris. What it can do, however, is inspire fear — which is why we call it terrorism, and shouldn’t dignify it with the name of war.
The point is not to minimize the horror. It is, instead, to emphasize that the biggest danger terrorism poses to our society comes not from the direct harm inflicted, but from the wrong-headed responses it can inspire. And it’s crucial to realize that there are multiple ways the response can go wrong.
Krugman doesn’t suggest appeasement. But he cautions that there is no perfect security system. He b says that, yes, climate change presents more danger to the continuation of civilization than terrorists.
Terrorism requires good policing, plenty of precaution and military action, Krugman says. But giving in to fear is not a strategy.
UPDATE: President Obama said today in Turkey that sending ground troops to Syria would be a “mistake.” He also cautioned against equating refugees in great distress with terrorism.