Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Two Birds With One Stone

A United Nations special envoy for UNHCR believes we need to do more to help refugees in Syria. She's right.

The UN has never made more sense (nor looked better):

The international community is failing in its duty to protect civilians affected by the conflict in Iraq and Syria, US actress Angelina Jolie said Sunday in northern Iraq.

In her capacity as special envoy for the UN's refugee agency (UNHCR), the Hollywood star visited Syrian refugees and displaced Iraqis near Dohuk, in the autonomous region of Kurdistan.

"I'm shocked by what I've seen today. This is my fifth visit to Iraq since 2007 and the suffering is worse than anything I've seen in that time," she told reporters at a camp in Khanke.

Since depriving people of food, shelter, and health care is part of Assad's strategy to deprive the rebellion of support, it would be in our interest to ramp up humanitarian aid and dare Assad to resist the effort.

And it is the right thing to do. So bonus, right?

We're bombing Assad's enemies (who are also our enemy, to be sure). Could Assad really resist our efforts to get significant support to Syrian civilians in motion?