Month: October 2024 (Page 4 of 4)

I found several  parts of the Hidden Pentagon Records Reveal Patterns of Failure in Deadly Airstrikes by the New York Times exciting and particularly captivating.  One part of the text that stood out to me is when it reads, “In November 2015, after observing a man dragging an “unknown heavy object” into an ISIS “defensive fighting position,” American forces struck a building in Ramadi, Iraq. A military review found that the object was actually “a person of small stature” — a child — who died in the strike.” This segment immeidately caught my emotions and also reinforced an interesting theme that was obvious throughout the beginning of the piece. Many of the stories in the beginning being depicted struck my emotions early on and made me think. Specifically, the story of American forces striking a building in Ramadi, Iraq. only to realize that the “unknown heavy object” being dragged by a man was a child who ended up dying in the strike. That story grabbed my immediate attention and provided an opportunity to emphasize the seriousness of the situation. Using these examples of innocence and depicting how they are being affected severely by the consequences of war is a captivating tactic in the article. It immediately pulls on the reader’s affections especially while they go about reading the rest of the passage. I also think the emphasis on this information being top secret and explicitly found only at the Pentagon archive emphasizes the seriousness of the situation and the severity of these innocent lives lost. It also introduces the importance and significance of the article early on.

The transition in this piece is also incredibly compelling. It draws the line between how not a single record provided includes a finding of wrongdoing or disciplinary action and how these records clearly outline the issue through personal, first-hand events documented in these records.

“To understand how this happened, The Times did what military officials admit they have not done: analyzed the casualty assessments in the aggregate to discern patterns of failed intelligence, decision-making, and execution.” This makes me wonder- did they not purposefully do this because they feared what they would find? Were they afraid that they would realize more innocent lives were being taken than they realized?

I felt that the New York Times article “Airstrikes Allowed America to Wage War with Minimal Risk to its Troops” took a different approach. The article explicitly reads, “Sawsan had been staying with her grandparents for a week when the whole family sat down to dinner on March 5, 2016. All told, there were 21 people around the table.” This quote emphasizes just how quickly these lives change for those affected. To go from being able to sit at the dining room table with all of your family members to suddenly being under attack and receiving several strikes is such a dramatic difference that it has such a traumatic impact.

Upon visiting The Sola Foundation’s website, I found their mission statement inspiring. I especially liked the idea of cultivating meaningful connections and conversations on a small scale, hoping to broaden to more Afghans not explicitly located in Philadelphia. “Our mission is centered on empowering and mobilizing the Afghan community in Philadelphia to cultivate a meaningful connection with the global Afghan community.” Reading about this organization before reading the Missouri piece offered an enjoyable transition . I feel like many of the stories we are reading related to immigration are detailed descriptions of suffering or outlining/bringing attention to struggles that are leaving immigrants behind others. However, these articles highlighting positives and programs being put in place were much more positive and offered a different perspective/light.

Especially in the case of reading Sidiquis’ program and her work,  I found that her efforts in helping refugees and immigrants settle safely and effectively were both impressive and inspiring. I also found the emphasis on tolerating new Americans and “embracing them, embracing who they are” important. I think this point of the argument makes it explicit just how important it is to avoid having these immigrants shape shift and dissociate from their culture and where they are coming from. A follow-up quotation emphasizing that ‘Immigrants and refugees revitalize every community that they resettle because they bring something different” was also interesting.This quote emphasizes the importance of keeping the individual and embracing them for who they are, given that, as this quote explains, each individual has contributions that can be beneficial.

Azmat Khan’s two-part series is truly illuminating. It highlights the chasm between what governments promise, especially about protecting civilian life in war, and the actual delivery of their mandates. It shows that unless there is a public pressure to do so, there is no incentive to preserve civilian life. There will be no accountability, given that investigations into violations are usually conducted by the groups that commit the attacks in the first place. It also led me to a broader reflection on the false promises of technology versus the reality of how it is changing our world. As former Pentagon adviser Lawrence Lewis put it, “we don’t use [these technological capabilities] to bring down risk for civilians. We just use them so we can make attacks that maybe we couldn’t do before”. That is the paradox of technological progress. When we think it will make us more effective at the things we already do, it encourages behaviors that do exactly the opposite. They “create greater legal and moral space for greater risk.”

So the responsibility of determining whether certain actions are the result of real mistakes or deliberate negligence, especially in a war where the victims of military action are often reduced to collateral damage, falls upon the public. When the public does not have access to proper information, we become unable to perform this role. This is something that institutions of power perfectly understand and the reason why they take measures to limit the information that is publicly available.

There are clear parallels with what Azmat Khan reported on and what we see in the Middle East with respect to a disregard for civilian life in the pursuit of military objectives. Israel has reportedly deliberately obstructed journalists’ reporting, censored and even killed those covering the war in Gaza (see sources below). This is why investigative journalism is extremely important, especially in these contexts, because it provides the public with the information it needs to play its part in holding institutions of power to account for their actions. When journalists are prevented from doing their jobs, all of society suffers.

I also enjoyed reading the articles about the integration of Afghan refugees in Missouri or about the Bowling sisters. These wonderful stories shine a light on the agency, innovation, and resilience of the people we usually talk and write about, placing them at the center of their own stories rather than keeping them as objects of our own curiosity.

Finally, I once again found it interesting that the vast majority of Afghan refugees live in neighboring countries – namely Iran (3.4 million) and Pakistan (1.9 million). These statistics remind us that other countries also play a vital role in the distribution of global refugees, oftentimes to a larger extent than places like Europe and North America, yet they seldom sensationalize this issue. That is why I am particularly interested in exploring how the global south handles refugee resettlement and migration in general as I believe there is a lot we can learn from observing these overlooked contexts.

Sources
https://theconversation.com/how-israel-continues-to-censor-journalists-covering-the-war-in-gaza-228241
https://rsf.org/en/pressure-intimidation-and-censorship-israeli-journalists-have-faced-growing-repression-past-year
https://rsf.org/en/one-year-gaza-how-israel-orchestrated-media-blackout-region-war

I remember following the sudden collapse of the Afghan National Government and Army in the midst of the US withdrawal very closely on Twitter. The mood was somewhat apocalyptic and the image of people trying to clasp onto US military cargo planes is my jarring abiding memory of that moment. Jane Ferguson’s piece on PBS was very good I thought. The collage of footage is incredible and conveys the sheer desperation of so many people. I also thought it did a good job of contextualizing Biden’s speech in terms of Vietnam and refuting his claim that this was nothing like that in such devastating terms. I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be a western journalist in Kabul then. There were still some ANA forces who had not disappeared, there were the Taliban of course, as well as ISIS-K, and a great number of desperate people. I also remember the takeover of the Taliban as this great unknown: would the violent reprisals start right away or would they wait until the last US forces had departed? I read Jane Ferguson’s piece in the New Yorker reflecting on that moment and her dilemma about going to cover it and risking getting trapped or worse. 

I found the NYT two part piece fascinating. I can’t imagine how much labor over so many years went into producing it: the result, however, is a systematic deconstruction of the Pentagon’s air strike assessment criteria and the bureaucracy that surrounds it. The story is that the US government was negligently killing thousands of civilians without any accountability while maintaining a narrative that it was minimising civilian casualties. The series also did a great job of bridging the gap between the very technical and data-driven aggregated review of casualty assessments and telling the human stories of the people whose families were killed in the airstrikes. Both parts are necessary to dismantle the Pentagon’s own sanitary narrative of surgical, “precision” bombing campaign. When surviving members of families devastated by the airstrikes address the pentagon, crying out how such a powerful military could have thought that their house was habouring terrorists, Captain Urban’s rigid and corporate responses ring very hollow. But if the investigation had not been so thorough, I as a reader naively would have trusted Captain Urban’s statements because I wanted to—I wanted to believe that the US military wouldn’t have done this and some civilian casualties are inevitable. This piece is so effective therefore that is manages to make you reevaluate what you take for granted. There are also so many small, but devastating details: the woman from the US overseas development agency who said the children probably lived in the house but who was dismissed, or the disillusioned, anonymous US officer who could not distinguish the result of the US’ bureaucratic bombing of Raqqa from Russia’s indiscriminate bombing of Aleppo. I’m very curious to know how one would cultivate sources in government or the military especially as the source has a strong incentive not to say anything and even if they wanted to how would you find them?

CAIRO, EGYPT; Nearly a year on from the start of Israel’s large-scale bombing campaign, an estimated 100,000 Gazans have fled to Cairo. With the only escape being through the Southern Rafah crossing, Egyptian couriers have been accused of profiting from the excessive “coordination fees” needed to cross the border.

Once in Egypt however, the absence of a UN refugee body that works with Palestinians, as well as Egypt’s reluctance to give Palestinians residency or refugee status has left most in a state of uncertainty. Despite being the lucky few to have escaped the worst in Gaza, their current lack of access to employment, education and other essential services has left many with little hope for building a future.

Khaled Alghorani left Gaza for Egypt six months ago. “We are here with no residency permit or anything like that,” he says. “ We can’t access anything. Without residency, we can’t work; we can only open small businesses, but even that is very hard to get permission for. The only way right now is to either invest a huge amount of money ( approximately more 150-200k USD ) or buy a large amount of assets, so its hard for most of us.” Khaled studied Medicine at Al-Azhar University but has been unable to resume his studies or find employment, a position that many Gazans in Cairo find themselves in.

Establishing themselves as refugees or obtaining residency is not an easy task for those coming from the Palestinian territories. Egypt hosts over 756,000 refugees, with the UNHCR being the agency tasked with registering asylum seekers and facilitating refugees’ access to health and education services. Palestinians however, are the only group who fall outside of the UNHCR’s remit, leaving them unable to go through traditional regularization routes.

“When Palestinians come to the UNHCR, they’re essentially told to fuck off,” said Sara White, a former UNHCR legal officer based in Cairo. “In theory, the UNRWA would deal with them, but Egypt doesn’t want them there for political reasons”. UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, was set up by the UN in 1949 specifically to deal with displaced Palestinians. Despite operating in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, it does not operate in Egypt, and the Egyptian government has made it clear that it would not allow it or similar agencies to operate on its territory, citing security reasons as well as claims that it would aid in the permanent resettlement of Palestinians, thus harming their prospects of returning to Palestine.

“There is a deep history regarding the UN agencies that take responsibility for Palestinian refugees,” says Dawn Chatty, Oxford University professor of anthropology to the Guardian. “The Egyptian government is not going to give them asylum,” she says. “Granting official asylum to people fleeing Gaza could “destroy” their notional right to return to these lands and could put Egypt “in big trouble with other Arab states.”

Egypt has long refused to recognize Palestinians’ right to asylum. Instead, Palestinian refugees in Egypt are instead classified as “our guests” or “our siblings”, for fears of creating these legal and material conditions that may encourage Palestinians to remain.

In practice however, with neither UNRWA nor UNHCR aid available, Gazans in Egypt have been left dependent on local and grassroots initiatives for support, many set up by Palestinians themselves. Many other groups are formed through Facebook, with Egyptians creating fundraisers and offering advice, for example in finding accommodation or informal work opportunities.

The issues within the current system don’t stop at the legal discrepancies, as some have pointed out. The inequalities begin from the start of the journey, as reports have exposed Hala Consulting and Tourism Services, the sole agent with a monopoly over Gaza crossings, for the extortionate fees it charges for each passage.

Officially, only foreign nationals and injured Palestinians were allowed to evacuate. As the war went on, however, Gazans were able to buy their way out through the Egyptian agency, which has been linked to the Egyptian security establishment. The prices, which before the war were set at around $300 per passage per person, have increased to around $5000 for adults and $2500 for children. Many have resorted to online crowdfunding as a way to pay the fees, as well as help from any relatives they may have abroad. The fees are then paid to a travel agency, who take a cut and send the remaining amount to Egyptian officials who coordinate the crossing.

Legal experts argue that Egypt must accept refugees. In an op-ed for Foreign Policy Magazine, Alice Edwards, the UN special rapporteur on torture argued that “Egypt’s decision to seal its border with Gaza violates international humanitarian law and international refugee law.” She added that “Under the 1951 Convention, responsibility transfers to UNHCR outside the areas UNRWA doesn’t serve. In other words, UNHCR is required to support Palestinian refugees who reach Egypt. International cooperation is a foundational principle and that all states must play their part.” But without an active effort by the Egyptian government to classify Palestinians as ‘refugees’, this obligation remains unfulfilled, leaving Gazans in a precarious state.

Egyptians however, despite being vocal in support of the Palestinian cause, are wary of treating Palestinians in the same way as other refugees, arguing that efforts should be focused on ending the war, rather than pressuring Egypt to open its borders.

“If everyone leaves, there will be no more Gaza,” says Youssef Ali, a Princeton student from Cairo. “The only reason we call it Palestine or Gaza is because people still live there and assert it as such. People from Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia.. they all have a country to return to once the conflict ends. In the case of Palestine, they would never be able to return, as Israel would simply take the land, build homes, and that would be the end of it. Palestine, as we know it, would cease to exist, and a cause that has persisted for more than seven decades would disappear. This is why we don’t want to accept all Gazans.”

History has shown Egypt the long-term perils of supporting Palestinian migration out of the territories. The situation of Gazans in Cairo has demonstrated the political dilemma Egyptians claim they face, of needing to preserve the Palestinian right of return whilst providing Gazans with the immediate legal and humanitarian aid they need. However, without mechanisms to integrate and aid Palestinians as refugees, Gazans will continue to suffer in the absence of both the UNHCR and UNRWA.

NYC Faces Criticism for Paying Migrants to Leave Shelters Amid Crisis
New York City has been facing backlash after the initiation of a program which offers migrants up to $4,000 to leave taxpayer-funded shelters. The initiative is a part of Mayor Eric Adam’s efforts to alleviate the city’s shelter system from the influx of demand due to migrant arrivals since the expiration of Title 42 in May (NJ1015, 2023).

There have been at least 150 migrant families that have been encouraged to seek permanent housing or to relocate. This program comes as New York City received over 110,000 migrants over the past year, exceeding the capacity of the shelter system. There are other temporary solutions such as compensating home owners to house migrants in private residences. (NY Post, 2024).

The New York shelter system is obligated to house all those that are in need but the definition has been stretched to its capacity. Mayor Adams stated that the influx of migrants could cost the city around $12 billion dollars over the next three years. As the shelters become overcrowded and overflowing, the city is being pushed to search for new alternatives and also try to incentivize migrants to leave the shelters. (FairUS, 2023).

Although the majority of the $4,000 per family is aimed to help secure long-term housing, there are some people that have used the money to try to relocate to other parts of the U.S as well as try to return to their home countries. (NY Post, 2024).

While some see this payment program as a necessary measure to reduce the burden on the shelter system, the program has faced large criticism. Supporters argue the funds provide a crucial lifeline to migrants stuck in overcrowded shelters, helping them transition to more stable living situations (NJ1015, 2023. However, opponents believe the payments are a temporary fix and may incentivize more migration. Groups, like Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), argue that offering cash handouts could encourage more migrants to come to the city, worsening the crisis (FairUS, 2023).

Opponents also worry about the long-term sustainability of this approach, questioning what will happen when more migrants arrive, further straining city resources. As the influx of migrants increases the necessity of a comprehensive plan intensifies. Residents, too, have raised concerns, with some questioning whether this is the best use of city funds as New York faces its own economic crisis (FairUS, 2023).

Mayor Adams has called on the federal government for additional aid, criticizing the Biden administration for not providing sufficient resources. While some emergency funding has been allocated, city officials argue it is not close to what is needed to address the crisis (NY Post, 2024).

As winter approaches and shelters remain full, New York City’s response to the migrant crisis is critically being watched. Mayor Adams has warned that without more federal support, the city will struggle to sustain the current situation. The payments, while offering temporary relief, leave many unanswered questions about the long-term management of the crisis (NJ1015, 2023).

Works Cited
– NJ1015. (2023). *New York Migrant Shelter Payments*.
– FairUS. (2023). *New York City Pays Illegal Migrants $4000 to Leave Its Shelters*.
– NY Post. (2024). *NYC Gave 150 Migrant Families Up to $4K Each to Get Them to Move Out of Taxpayer-Funded Shelters*.

WASHINGTON — The US sent back 116 Chinese migrants in the “first large charter flight since 2018” to China this July, according to a statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

In recent years, the U.S. has struggled with an uptick in unauthorized immigrant entries. Between 2020 and 2022, illegal entries increased by 630,000. DHS announced continued cooperation with China “to reduce and deter irregular migration and to disrupt illicit human smuggling through expanded law enforcement efforts,” eliciting concerns about the safety of migrants.

An influx of Chinese nationals has entered through the U.S.-Mexico Southwest Border in recent years. US Border officials arrested 37,000 undocumented Chinese migrants in 2023, 10 times the number of the previous year.

“We will continue to enforce our immigration laws and remove individuals without a legal basis to remain in the United States,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas in the DHS statement said. “People should not believe the lies of smugglers.”

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to requests for comment from the Associated Press about the collaboration between Beijing and Washington or the number of Chinese citizens awaiting deportation.

China suspended taking back undocumented Chinese nationals in August 2022, pausing cooperation on repatriation following then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in 2022. To deport undocumented Chinese nationals, the US must get approval from the Chinese government.

Since then, cooperation on the deportation of illegal Chinese immigrants in the US has resumed in November 2023 after President Joe Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping that reviewed “people-to-people exchanges” amongst other issues.

“I suspect that China may wrongly believe that in ‘cleaning up’ these illegal migrants and violations of other countries immigration law, that will increase their soft power amongst Western countries and Southeast Asia,” sociologist of Chinese migration Jacob Thomas said.

This statement follows international efforts to block main migrant routes connecting China to Western countries. In August, Panama’s government deported over 100 people, including Chinese migrants, to reduce the flow of US-bound migration passing through the Darién Gap.

“There’s a balancing act,” Thomas said. “Politicians in the US historically played between being concerned about human rights and having too many people. The Biden administration wanted to send a clear message: they’re not going to stop people ahead of time, but legally the goal is to prevent migrants from reaching the US.”

Panama President José Raúl Mulino had vowed to shut down the Darién Gap, entering a deal with the US stating it would cover the costs of repatriation for illegal migrants entering Panama.

Large deportation flights and border arrests have exacerbated tensions over immigration during the presidential election. Amidst an amplified a sense of nationalism across the US population, deportation flights echo the growing national sentiment around hardening control of the US border.

“A trend in immigration policy is that it’s very geopolitical. The presidential election is a moment of nationalism that lends itself to an ‘us versus them’ idea and nativism,” Beth Lew-Williams, a professor of history specializing in Chinese immigration law at Princeton University, said.

Anti-immigrant stances have become a uniting front for the Republican party. Notably, Chinese migrants have been targeted for espionage and intellectual property theft under policies like Former President Donald Trump’s China Initiative. Trump’s anti-Chinese rhetoric, such as labeling COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus” in a tweet has perpetuated anti-Asian racism.

Asian community organizations have expressed concern over the safety of Chinese residents in light of larger deportation numbers and the call for firmer border control.

“Since COVID, it is very much on our radar how hate crimes have been rising, even still today against Asian American communities.” Sophia Wan, a neighborhood planning associate at Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation. “We see that deportation is an example of that xenophobic and sinophobic sentiment on a national level.”

The growing xenophobia toward Chinese migrants coupled with issues of gentrification and affordability may impact the desirability of immigrating and the physical safety staying in predominantly Asian neighborhoods like Chinatown, according to Wan.

There are nearly 350,000 undocumented Chinese immigrants and around 1.7 million from Asia and the Pacific Islands in the US as of 2022.

“Chinese migrants, numerically, are not the main story of deportation in the US right now. It’s surprising and noteworthy, in part, because we assume a certain amount of deportation and exclusion at the Southern Border of mostly Central Americans,” Lew-Williams said.