If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
This past week I've had the chance to meet and talk with a lot of people in Domiz camp. Adults at the camp are rarely as blunt as the kids, and nearly always tell me things are okay, and services are alright.
In the year since Domiz refugee camp opened, it has grown to the size of a small city. 40,000 people live here; nearly 40 times the population of the country town Yea, where I grew up in Australia.
It is not too late for the Obama administration's Atrocities Prevention Board to take the lead in thwarting mass atrocities. Everyday it fails to act is an invitation to Khartoum, Pyongyang, Damascus and their ilk to step up their assaults on human lives and dignity.
Many in Washington now dismiss further assistance to Libya as useless: the Libyans themselves are fractious and have limited 'absorbtive capacity.' At the same time, it is wrong to say we have no influence in Libya, or that we have no means of increasing that capacity.
War still rages in Syria - a fact that we are too quick to forget. The second birthday of the crisis has long passed and resolution doesn't appear to be on the horizon. When Syria-related news does reach our media outlets and Twitter feeds, it usually focuses on chemical weapons or possible intervention by the US. There is little talk of the abhorrent humanitarian crisis, which deteriorates daily.
In the coming weeks UN, NATO, EU, USA, Russia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Israel and many others will have intense debates on what to do. Will the talking heads finally reach common ground and start acting accordingly? Stopping this war, is it really too complex, as many people tend to think? I don't think so.
The recent Israeli air strikes are a further blow to any hope of "peaceful" resolution and a potential call to arms for the Obama administration that has so far refused to send troops to Syria.
President Obama should stick to his red line policy toward Syria and avoid advancing a red line policy toward Iran that will tie his hands. That may frustrate his domestic critics, but it makes America's adversaries nervous. And this is exactly where we should want our country's foreign policy to be.
However high-ranking an individual might be, or however "full" the powers they might be entrusted within the process of political transition in Syria,...
One afternoon, I decided to clear my mind and pay a brief visit to the Hagia Sophia, the monumental edifice in the ancient heart of the city. The "Holy Wisdom" is almost 1500 years old, and is -- at least in my amateur opinion -- the single greatest masterpiece of Byzantine architecture.
My mother would put on the coat, look at herself in the mirror, and smile. "You see, when it is good quality, it lasts," she would say.
(New York) – Government security branches in Raqqa city hold documents and potential physical evidence indicating that detainees were arbitraril...
I believe Syria will be free soon, but the price they will have paid will be huge. And we will pay a massive price too if we stay silent about it. You can donate generously for the rehabilitation of the Syrian people, but more importantly you can lobby your MP and put pressure on the government to help resource the opposition.
As pressures mount in Washington for a more aggressive American involvement on behalf of at least some rebel groups in Syria, President Obama has seemed intent on proving the Nobel committee was farsighted in awarding him its peace prize four years ago.
Since the end of the Cold War, American foreign policy has generally been distinguished by three major schools of thought. The debate over U.S. policy in Syria has brought the divisions between these camps into stark relief.
Choosing between loyalty to country and consideration for fellow global citizens has all along been a false choice.
