Accept Syrian Refugees

The heinous terror attacks in Paris do not relieve us of our obligation to be steadfast and compassionate. I strongly support the Globe’s editorial position condemning Governor Baker’s small-minded stand against welcoming Syrian refugees to Massachusetts. The US is not just the land of the free, it is also the home of the brave. We can’t cede our courage to a special class of warriors and their families, especially when the strategy of fighting over there so that the fight doesn’t reach us at home has been so equivocal in its results.

We’ve tried limited bombing engagement, financing and arming sympathetic groups in other countries, invasion and occupation. None of these has worked out very well, in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan. President Obama is right in declining to invade Syria, and he was right to resist early calls to pour more powerful weapons into that conflagration. It should be worth a try to settle large numbers of Syrians in the US, both as a humanitarian and a practical intervention. We could provide a base of operations for Syrians who may some-day return after experiencing our democratic institutions first-hand. That might be a far more effective way to reach their hearts and minds, and it would avoid the long-term inflammatory effects of invasion and occupation.

Neither should we allow fear to slow the process in favor of some form of obsessive vetting. There is no fool-proof way to screen refugees from a country in chaos, but we should accept the risk that we might import a few jihadists. The number of casualties we might sustain from an attack would be easily eclipsed by the carnage on our highways and our opioid epidemic. Governor Baker has offered us a way to cave in to terror. That is the opposite of leadership. It is time for ordinary Americans to follow the example of our warriors, to step up and be brave. Perhaps our governor is unable to lead us in this way, but he should certainly get out of the way.

[Submitted as a letter to the editor of The Boston Globe but not selected for publication]