Knocking Down the House of Cards

War Comes to Home

The Trump admin. has decided to deploy troops to sanctuary cities in an aggressive move intended to arrest migrants. Agents under Customs and Border Protection will be sent to major cities (think: LA, Chicago, NY, Boston, etc.) that have refused to participate in Trump’s far-reaching immigration laws.
 
What will this do?
These agents, called BORTAC agents, are the equivalent of SWAT teams – in effect, they’ll be helping ICE officers make arrests. Generally, these militarized units are deployed in hostage situations and other dangerous circumstances, though, in this case, they’ll be sent to American neighborhoods. 

The consequence?
Entire migrant communities will be invaded, terrifying dozens. The image above is a famous photo of a BORTAC agent grabbing Elian Gonzalez. 

Is this the America you want to live in?

Ravaged By War

800,000 people, 60% of whom are children, have fled Syria in the past three months, in what is now the largest displacement of people since the conflict began nine years ago. 

Why?
The president of Syria, President Bashar al-Assad, has been sending thousands of forces to Idlib, the city closest to the Turkish border, to battle Turkish soldiers residing there. 
Turkish soldiers were deployed there, originally, because Idlib became somewhat of a buffer zone, where no fighting was supposed to take place. 

Recently, however, the fighting has escalated tremendously since Turkey and Russia (yes, the Russians are involved because they support Assad), have failed to agree on a new cease-fire. 
Because Turkish soldiers are now dying at the hands of Syrian fighters, the president of Turkey, President Erdogan, has threatened even more violence should another soldier be killed.
According to Erdogan, Russia and Assad’s forces have been directly targeting civilians, where now 200 have died – 84 of whom include children. And in just the past two days, 20,000 have fled their homes in Idlib to escape bombing by the Syrian government. 

When will this end?
There seems to be no optimistic end in sight, unfortunately. Despite the horrific humanitarian crisis that now exists in Idlib, there is no sign of the violence abating as Assad, with Russia’s help, is once again trying to take back control of all Syrian territory. 
Russia’s role, in the past, has been as a deal broker or arbitrator, but this time they’ve been absent in stopping the violence. The Russians are trying to let the Assad regime take as much of Idlib as possible before they come in as the firefighters… aka, knowing they have Assad on their side, the Russians are looking to become the new dominant force in the Middle East, and if Assad has all of Syria, Russia has one of the most powerful Middle Eastern nations on its side. 

Given the sheer number of deaths and displacement, the US should be ashamed of its silence.