The Education of an Idealist

by Samantha Power

  Along with María, so many of the people I relied upon every day—patriots who often worked seven days a week to promote US interests—were themselves immigrants or children of immigrants. The United States is the only country at the UN about which this is true.

  IN SEPTEMBER OF 2015, the lifeless body of Alan Kurdi, a two-year-old Syrian boy in a red T-shirt and tiny Velcro shoes, was photographed after he washed up on a Turkish shore. When an inflatable dinghy bound for Greece had capsized, Alan had drowned, along with his mother and five-year-old brother. The image ran on the front page of newspapers all over the world, focusing people on the danger that refugees endured in their search for safety. By the time of Kurdi’s death, some 65 million people in the world had been displaced, with an additional 34,000 people fleeing their homes each day.46

  In the decades since the US government had slammed its doors on thousands of Jews seeking refuge from the Nazis during World War II, America had become the world’s leader in responding to refugee crises, resettling more than four million people. Even after the fear brought about by the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Bush administration had still managed to resettle an average of nearly 45,000 refugees each year. Yet from the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011 until that September in 2015 when Alan Kurdi died, while the United States had admitted more than 284,000 refugees of other nationalities, we had only taken in 1,484 Syrians. This was a tiny fraction of the nearly five million people who had poured out of the country.

  On trips to places like Jordan, Turkey, and Germany, I would meet Syrian refugees desperate to find somewhere safe to restart their cruelly interrupted lives. At a refugee center in Amman, I spoke with a twelve-year-old boy named Ibraheem who had lost his mother and four siblings after Assad’s forces struck his home near Damascus with a barrel bomb. Because Ibraheem couldn’t walk after the attack, his father had carried him in his arms for eight months in a desperate quest to find a doctor who could remove the shrapnel in Ibraheem’s head, chest, and leg. Ibraheem eventually got the specialized care he needed, but only when he reached Winnipeg, Canada, where he and his father found refuge and where Ibraheem is now a high school student.

  On one visit, I was introduced to an extraordinary Syrian Kurd from Aleppo named Nujeen Mustafa. Nujeen, who was seventeen years old, had cerebral palsy and needed a wheelchair to get around. Unable to attend school even before the war, she had educated herself and became fluent in English from watching American television shows like Days of Our Lives. In 2014, she and her family had fled Syria, and Nujeen began a 3,500-mile wheelchair journey, traversing Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia, Hungary, Croatia, Slovenia, and Austria before arriving in Germany. Her older sister Nisreen had stayed by her side, helping push her wheelchair during their sixteen-month trek. When I met the two sisters in Berlin, I asked Nujeen why so many Syrians like her risked drowning in the rough waters of the Mediterranean for an uncertain future in Europe. She explained that their motivation was elemental: “People are dying every day for the chance to brush their teeth in the morning and go to school.”

  In the early years of the war, Syrian refugees had not intended to resettle in faraway places like Germany or the United States. They had instead remained in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey so they would be nearby when the time came to return home. But as the war dragged on, many lost hope and began trying to move to Western countries, where they hoped to find work and build new lives. Not until 2015 did the UN refugee agency ask the Obama administration if the United States would be willing to resettle several thousand Syrians. Unfortunately, with Republicans caricaturing those in flight as dangerous threats, senior officials in the Department of Homeland Security and the White House claimed the political support did not exist to take in large numbers. Kurdi’s death, however, became a catalyst for reopening the internal Obama administration debate over how many Syrians we could admit.

  Taking in Syrian refugees wasn’t mere charity; we had real national security interests at stake.47 Most refugees were living in countries of modest means, with fragile political systems or recent histories of violence. For all the political noise generated in countries like the US, almost 90 percent of the world’s refugee population had fled to low- and middle-income countries.48 Lebanon, for example, had become home to more than a million Syrian refugees since the start of the war. By the time of Alan Kurdi’s death, one in every five people in the country was a refugee—roughly the equivalent of the United States receiving 64 million new Canadians or Mexicans. Other frontline states like Jordan were experiencing similarly huge influxes.

  Despite being a cauldron of sectarian tensions, Lebanon had somehow managed to avoid returning to conflict even as its neighbor, Syria, was engulfed in flames. But Lebanon’s generosity was putting an impossible strain on its infrastructure and politics. The more refugees the United States and other wealthy countries could accept, the more we could lobby other countries to do—and ultimately the lighter the load the Lebanese would carry.

  The US government’s first responsibility was of course to keep the American people safe, and US officials were determined to prevent violent extremist groups from planting terrorists among resettled refugees. When I served on the NSC staff, I had seen all that our counterterrorism experts had done to strengthen the screening process. The Department of Homeland Security vetted refugee applicants against multiple databases, including those maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI, and the Department of Defense. Refugees were also interviewed, often several times, before ever being allowed to travel to the United States. For Syrians, we had even put in place an additional layer of review to ensure that US officials thoroughly interrogated even the smallest inconsistency or gap in information. A typical application took more than a year to vet. Some took much longer.

  Candidate Trump repeatedly lied about this process, promoting falsehoods like, “We have no idea who [refugees] are, where they come from. There’s no documentation. There’s no paperwork.”49 In fact, two-thirds of all of the refugees who had come to the US in the previous decade were women and children—and we knew who they were. Of the millions of refugees admitted to the United States since the landmark Refugee Act of 1980, not one has carried out a lethal act of domestic terrorism.

  Along with many others—most notably White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, who had gotten to know Vietnamese refugees through his church as a child—I urged that the administration increase the number of refugees accepted into the United States. Recognizing that the more people we admitted, the more we could reasonably urge other nations to take, President Obama increased the national “cap” on refugees from 70,000 in 2015 to 85,000 in 2016, and designated at least 10,000 spots for Syrians. In 2016, he would set the cap for the following year at 110,000 refugees—a bold message to world leaders, who typically looked to see what the United States did before themselves acting.*

  Unfortunately, as our administration tried to respond to the growing need to take vetted Syrian families, prominent Republicans—perhaps eyeing Trump’s political ascent—took up his cause. Two months after Kurdi’s death provoked such an outpouring, coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris perpetrated by followers of ISIS killed 130 people. In the immediate wake of these attacks, thirty-one governors—thirty of them Republicans—made statements opposing the resettlement of Syrian refugees in their states. And within a week, the Republican-controlled House had passed a bill that would have effectively halted the admission of Syrians.50

  The political battle lines were drawn, with the fate of vulnerable refugees suddenly at the center of a national debate about American identity and security. Hearteningly, I began to hear from a growing number of people—through emails, letters to the US Mission, and queries on my Twitter feed—asking what they themselves could do to help refugees.51 Mum and Eddie were among those who felt compelled to do more; along with their neighbors, they sponsored a recently arrived Afghan father and son who moved in with them for several months while the fa
ther looked for work.

  When I dropped by an International Rescue Committee office in New York to thank volunteers who were teaching English to resettled refugees, I couldn’t help but notice the vast number of boxes piled in the hallways and on desks. When the office director saw my puzzlement, she explained, “It’s donations. Ever since politicians started demonizing refugees, the grassroots response has been incredible. We can’t keep up. Toys, clothes, money—we are overwhelmed.”

  Seeing this, I wondered how many more people would help if they knew what they personally could do. I asked my team whether the US government could create a website where individuals would enter their zip code to learn which nearby organizations needed help welcoming refugees into the community. Although it took months, NSC aide Ronnie Newman worked with the web designers at the White House to create aidrefugees.gov, a site that allowed users to easily find out how they could offer after-school tutoring or provide groceries, bed linens, or even rides to job interviews.52

  In order to fulfill President Obama’s promise to admit 10,000 vetted Syrians, Deputy National Security Advisor Avril Haines, Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Amy Pope, President Obama’s human rights adviser Steve Pomper, Ronnie, and others pushed the entire administration to innovate in new ways. The US Digital Service, a team of information technology experts at the White House, computerized the paper processes and studied the data to understand the source of bureaucratic bottlenecks. For the first time, the different agencies involved in vetting sat together in a fusion cell to work through issues that arose. And once the President had announced the US goal, the Department of Homeland Security brought on new staff to its “refugee corps” in order to interview refugees and process their applications. When DHS and the intelligence community put out the call for volunteers to join the refugee processing effort, many dozens of civil servants stepped forward, working around the clock to be sure that applicants in the pipeline got a fair hearing.

  My team and I also worked with Steve and others at the NSC to help organize a refugee summit, the first of its kind, which President Obama hosted during the UN General Assembly. As the United States had done during the Ebola outbreak, we used our enhanced commitments to push other countries to do more. We also made sure to recognize the extraordinary leadership shown by American partners like Germany and Canada, where Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had boldly welcomed Syrian families in the face of domestic political backlash. By the time the summit ended, Obama had mobilized more than $4 billion in new funding for refugees, while doubling the number of displaced that countries around the world planned to admit.53

  Recognizing that all sectors of society needed to be involved in managing the largest displacement crisis since World War II, I also partnered with Obama’s senior adviser Valerie Jarrett to help the President convene at the UN several dozen CEOs, who made $650 million worth of specific pledges to support refugees. A leader in this effort was Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant to the United States who built his Chobani yogurt company into an industry giant while going out of his way to employ immigrants and refugees. Ulukaya pledged at Obama’s business summit to take responsibility for ensuring corporate follow-through after the President left office. Through what he calls the Tent Partnership for Refugees, Ulukaya has thus far enlisted 130 companies to house, provide banking and other services for, and—most precious of all—hire refugees.

  IN ORDER TO LEARN how resettled families were faring at such a politically inflamed time, I reached out to offer support to a recently arrived Syrian family. At our first meeting, Morad and Ola Al-Teibawi and their five children joined Mum, Eddie, Laura, María, and the kids for an evening together in the Waldorf residence. Rían and Rama, their young daughter of the same age, colored together, and Declan befriended the middle son, an eleven-year-old named Mohamed. Mohamed did not yet speak English, but quickly showed he was up for any sport that Declan was willing to play.

  As I put Declan to bed after the dinner, he peppered me with questions about his new friend. Why, he wanted to know, did Mohamed have to leave his home in Syria?

  When I said that Mohamed’s home had been destroyed by Assad’s warplanes, Declan asked if we could help get bricks to rebuild it.

  I explained that Assad’s forces would probably just bomb the house again.

  “Why doesn’t Obama make Assad stop?” Declan asked.

  “Because America has been in two really hard wars over the last fifteen years, and he doesn’t want to start another one,” I said. “It is also really hard to use war to make things better and save people. Often it doesn’t work.”

  “But then Assad will keep doing what he’s doing to kids like Mohamed,” Declan replied.

  “And to Syrian grown-ups too,” I added.

  “Can’t Obama at least stop the airplanes?” Declan asked.

  I couldn’t believe I was on the verge of debating the merits of a no-fly zone with my young son.

  When I left the Waldorf each morning to take Declan to school, I picked up the New York Times from the guard stationed outside our apartment. Declan made a game out of grabbing the paper before me and racing down the long, carpeted hallway, daring me to catch him. As he did this, he would often glimpse whatever image was on the front page.

  “Why do the kids in Syria always put white and gray powder on their faces?” he asked me one day.

  Initially confused, I quickly realized that almost all the photos my son had seen of Syrian children were taken after bombings, which left them caked in dust from the debris.

  Declan and Rían fortunately did not see the film of dazed and traumatized Omran Daqneesh, a five-year-old boy injured after a government air strike in a rebel-held area of Aleppo. A local activist captured footage of Omran covered in blood and dirt as he sat barefoot and alone in the back of an ambulance. As with Alan Kurdi, the image went viral, concentrating the world’s attention for a fleeting moment on the agony Syrians were enduring.

  When someone in the White House circulated a letter that an American boy around Declan’s age had written President Obama about Omran, I decided to read it to my son.

  Dear President Obama,

  Remember the boy who was picked up by the ambulance in Syria? Can you please go get him and bring him to [my home]? Park in the driveway or on the street and we will be waiting for you guys with flags, flowers, and balloons. We will give him a family and he will be our brother. Catherine, my little sister, will be collecting butterflies and fireflies for him. In my school, I have a friend from Syria, Omar, and I will introduce him to Omar. We can all play together. We can invite him to birthday parties and he will teach us another language. We can teach him English too, just like my friend Aoto from Japan.

  Please tell him that his brother will be Alex who is a very kind boy, just like him. Since he won’t bring toys and doesn’t have toys Catherine will share her big blue stripy white bunny. And I will share my bike and I will teach him how to ride it. I will teach him additions and subtractions in math. And he [can] smell Catherine’s lip gloss penguin which is green. She doesn’t let anyone touch it.

  Thank you very much! I can’t wait for you to come!

  Alex

  Alex lived close to New York City, so when Declan asked if I could set up a play date, I contacted his family and invited them to the UN. When Alex arrived, Declan shyly introduced himself as if he were meeting a superhero. The boys took turns sitting in the Security Council president’s chair, banging the gavel used to start meetings.

  As I watched Declan and Alex presiding over an imaginary meeting, it was hard to escape the thought that perhaps we would be better off with the children of the world in charge.

  — 38 —

  Exit, Voice, Loyalty

  In 2016, I met Raed Saleh, a thirty-two-year-old former electronics salesman who led Syria’s fearless rescue and recovery volunteers. Known as the White Helmets, they were estimated to have helped save some 50,000 lives since their founding in 2013
. More than 140 of their men had been killed in the line of duty, including dozens of Saleh’s friends. Their motto was drawn from the Quran: “To save a life is to save all of humanity.”54

  The previous year, Russia had intervened militarily in Syria, sending heavy weapons, fighter jets, and thousands of soldiers in support of President Assad. Saleh was visiting New York and Washington in a desperate bid to lobby the United States government to set up a no-fly zone to protect civilians who were being killed in large numbers.55 I was in awe of Saleh’s organization. But knowing that US Syria policy was very unlikely to change, I had been dreading seeing him.

  I ushered Saleh into my office at the US Mission to the UN. The walls were decorated with my children’s artwork, a watercolor of the town in Ireland where I’d been married, and, near my desk, a map of Syria. On my bookshelves, alongside photos of Cass and our kids, I kept the program from Richard Holbrooke’s memorial, a photo of a Liberian Ebola survivor being welcomed home by her family, and a basketball President Obama had inscribed to me.

  Saleh took note of an enormous tome that stretched the width of the coffee table where we sat. Given to me by Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League, the book’s pages bore the word “Jew” printed in tiny letters over and over—six million times.

  Saleh spoke in Arabic while a Syrian opposition activist translated into English. He described Syrian and Russian aircraft pulverizing civilian neighborhoods, using “bunker bombs” to target people hiding in the basements of their apartment buildings. He confirmed news reports that fighter jets were deliberately hunting down the White Helmets as they tried to rescue those trapped in the wreckage. In the previous week alone, he estimated, 1,000 Syrians had been killed.