How
world should respond to Syria crisis/Frida
Ghitis is a world affairs columnist for The Miami Herald and World Politics
Review, and a former CNN producer and correspondent. The opinions expressed in
this commentary are solely those of the author.
CNN
| 04/08/15
The
calamity that has befallen the people of Syria has put the entire world to
shame. The image of 3-year-old Aylan Kurdi lying facedown on a beach, dead,
after his family sought to escape the horrors of their country’s civil war, has
touched the world. But compassion without action is pointless.
Thousands
of refugees are battling European governments. Today, it’s Hungary. Last month,
it was Macedonia. Desperate people are paying thousands of dollars to
traffickers to take them to safety; scores have died of asphyxia after being
locked in trucks that failed to reach their destination; thousands have drowned
trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea.
We
are living in the worst refugee crisis since World War II, and yet the truth is
that world leaders have failed to manage the crisis. They will, of course,
answer to history. But in the meantime, the situation will only become worse
without drastic action: More will die, more refugees will arrive unwanted, more
countries will become destabilized and, if this goes on much longer, we will
have a generation of Syrians who have grown up in the kind of conditions that
perpetuate conflict.
It
is too late to prevent the current crisis, but there is plenty we can try to do
moving forward to try to ease it.
What
exactly?
