And then there is the matter of the refugees themselves. The U.S. has admitted roughly 1,500 Syrian refugees since 2011 and says that it will resettle no more than 8,000 by the end of 2016. In 2013, the last year for which Homeland Security statistics are available, the U.S. granted asylum to just 36 people from Syria.

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“This is getting attention now because refugees are trying to flood into Europe. But this should not just be about how do we support the Europeans.”
—Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy StudiesThis puts the U.S. far behind Germany, which has committed to accepting up to 800,000 refugees by the end of this year.

However, even Germany’s commitments pale in comparison to the roughly 4 million Syrian refugees who have fled to Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, and Iraq—where a refugee crisis has long been brewing. In Lebanon, Syrian refugees now comprise one quarter of the population.

“This is getting attention now because refugees are trying to flood into Europe,” said Bennis. “But this should not just be about how do we support the Europeans.”

The aid group International Rescue Committee is circulating a petition for the the U.S. to resettle at least 65,000 Syrian refugees by 2016, and it has so far garnered nearly 12,000 signatures. And 14 Senate Democrats have joined in the call to “dramatically increase the number of Syrian refugees that we accept for resettlement.”

But many insist the ultimate solution lies in creating the conditions that will allow refugees to return home—where U.S.-led policies laid the groundwork for the ongoing violence, including the rise of ISIS.

“The U.S. should consider some immediate humanitarian solutions to ease the suffering of millions of refugees fleeing the Middle East, but we should also keep in mind that humanitarian assistance is not the solution to this crisis,” Jarrar emphasized. “The ultimate solution to the onging refugee crisis is a political solution that will stabilize the region and give refugees the option to go back home.”

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