The elephant in the room

One of the most controversial estimate of the decrees of the President of the United States Donald trump is a temporary complete ban on entry into the USA of people with passports of Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Syria, Somalia and the Sudan. I do not remember a similar precedent in the history of Western democracies in modern times. Only some Muslim States not allow its territory to Israeli citizens.

The decree is controversial for several reasons. In fact, he questioned the competence of the security services of the United States, which so carefully check each visa applicant. Also violates one of the cornerstones of Western law is the presumption of innocence. The decree is more like a PR stunt, saying that that’s how I fulfill campaign promises! But there was another promise — to ban entry to the US Muslims. Whether trump that? The above decision is unfair because the most famous Islamic terrorists and the ideology of violence come from the US friendly countries — Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Pakistan. The ban also discriminare millions of Christians living in Iraq, Syria and Sudan. Indirectly the decree trump touches and Latvia. Many leading European politicians have warned that the current policy trump makes the future of a United Europe (and therefore and Latvia) unpredictable.

This question has a moral side. The US said that within four months will not make refugees of the seven States covered by the prohibition on entry. If we look back at the history of the last half-century, we will see that both the USA and the USSR and its successor Russia did a lot to destabilize regions that are now plagued by war and where a lot of refugee flows. In Afghanistan began with the Soviet invasion in 1979, Iraq disintegrated after the invasion the US-led coalition in 2003. The causes of the civil war in Yemen should be sought in the distant 60-ies of the last century, when “help” of the West and the Soviet Union, the country was divided into two parts, North Yemen and socialist South Yemen. And Syria today is plagued by all and Sundry: Russia, United States, Islamic terrorists, even Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Arrived in Russia only a small number of refugees from the Middle East (mainly from Syria), and it is rather chaotic migration rather than an organized rescue. Any refugees did not accept the rich Arab States — Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman. The reality is that a helping hand to these unfortunate people reached Europe only.

Has long been claimed that both Russia and Turkey are using refugees as an instrument in order to influence what is happening in Europe. The goal of Turkey’s short-term and limited to a desire to negotiate political or material benefit. Russia is the goal, rather, for the long term and they are aimed at destabilizing the European Union. Now Erdogan and Putin was joined by trump, who, like a bull in a China shop, his rash movements can only worsen the situation.

If we consider the refugees a weapon, it is enough to look at a globe to understand that Europe’s most vulnerable and threatened. America is far away on the other side of the ocean, in its turn, Russia from crisis regions — Africa, Middle East — today separates the borders of many States. Much closer to a rich and yet sympathetic Europe. In order to fully protect its southern and Eastern borders requires huge resources and political will. Besides, there is also such a thing as free movement of persons in the Schengen area!

More and more it seems that with the arrival of trump 2017 may become the differentiating feature in the history of the world, similar to what one hundred years ago was in 1917 that brought the world the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.

 

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