In September, Aylan Kurdi, a 2 Year-Old boy from Syria, washed ashore on a beach in Turkey. When he was found, people knew that things were not right. A photo of his body hit the news a few days later of Aylan Kurdi face down in the water on the Turkish beach. When the photo broke, people started to notice that something was seriously wrong. As the week went on, people started to be more aware of the situation that was going on over in Syria. No one knows the specific reason why this refugee crisis is going on, but as of right now the thought is that the Syrian war started this crisis, which is between the Shia and the Sunni (ISIS). Many countries are being blamed for this crisis, but one country is being blamed the most: The United States.

Even though many countries are being blamed, the United States seems to be the most targeted country for this crisis. According to a news article, Susan Collins, a republican senator of Maine, states “The problem is that the President has completely lacked a strategy for solving the problem at its roots.” This is true, and some people say that the US is the reason why this crisis started. A unanimous source stated,“It could be argued that the US pulling out from the Iraq War may have been premature.”  This caused the instability of the Middle East today.  

Since the crisis started, 9 million people have fled their homes in Syria, due to the fact that Assad and his regime were bombing and torturing the people of Syria, and no one knows how to stop him. Everyone has their own opinion on how things should be handled, whether it should be “[removing] their president from power, and helping to stabilize the nation, and having the US lead the attack.”

From the start of this crisis, Syria has divided into 4 government groups: Government, Rebel, ISIS, and Kuraish forces. There is not solid plan to stop these brutal groups from attacking the people. Obama said in the beginning that Assad “must go”, but he does not need to go on day one. The only issue is that Obama doesn’t want to put any ground troops into Syria, and all his other plans have failed. There is an alternative plan to keep the people safer; other countries are doing this by taking refugees into their countries.

The United States is one of the countries that are contributing to this cause. In the past year Barack Obama has declared that the United States is going to be taking in 10,000 refugees. But there are some people that think there can be more done to help. As democratic senator of Virginia, Tim Kaine stated, “When you compare that with what Lebanon is doing, housing over a million, Turkey over two million, Jordan over a million, I just think there is more we can do.”

Agreeing with Senator Klaine was Hillary Clinton and Martin O’Malley, both who are going for a presidential bid in the 2016 election, said that the United States should contribute more to the cause and take in 65,000 refugees. The more refugees we take in, the less casualties there will be.

2,500 people have died each year trying to escape Syria for safety. One reason why so many people are dying is because “The countries on the middle eastern peninsula, Syria’s closest neighbors, are not accepting refugees whatsoever”, said senior Alex Mootafian.  Countries have to work as one to help other countries survive. If countries continue fighting over the blame a solution won’t come to be.