#featureforfrance
Let me start by saying that I realize that taking a real estate blog post and veering it down the slippery slope of geopolitics has its inherent dangers. I'm a mortgage professional and I try to "stay in my lane," but in the wake of the violence in Paris on 11-13-15, I wanted to do more than just change my Facebook profile photo. Like most everyone, my emotions are raw and my heart is heavy for the people of France. Having just visited the City of Lights makes viewing the canvas of the attacks that much more surreal.
Until all is known about the motives behind this brand of becoming-all-too-familiar inhumanity, public sentiment and political directive will go where they will. And Americans, still bearing the scar of 9-11, could tell France a thing or two about responding to terrorism on a grand scale. But I'm going to come right out and say there is, for certain, no way to kill our way out of this problem. Should evidence support that ISIS planned and carried out these atrocities in Paris, let me say again, going to war in Syria and Iraq will neither extinguish the likelihood of more violence in the West nor will it settle the conflict in the Middle East. If you disagree with me on this concept, then please walk me through how the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and our lost decade of involvement in those countries, squares with recent and ongoing events.
But my point here is NOT to discuss foreign affairs in this sense. To merely opine on who has been right or wrong or what has been effective or ineffective is pointless at the bier of the 100+ lives taken far too soon. Instead, I am going to offer what I think is a real solution and a long-term endgame in this conflict of cultures. I will warn that it is masquerading as untold suffering and a problem of impossible magnitude. The solution, believe it or not, lies in the refugees.
Since it is no longer too soon to admit that we, the global people of 2015, are facing the war of our times, we should retreat to history itself and its reaffirmation that when the human condition in any one place becomes so intolerable as to cause the populous to flee, despite tremendous hardship and risk, there is an energy there that is irrepressible. There is a quest for freedom and a better future that knows no bounds. There is hope in each footstep. While I have not followed the exodus from the middle east in great detail, I know enough to count hundreds of thousands with but their lives on their backs, reaching for anything better than what their homeland could provide.
And now, Europe and the West must find a way to harness this potential. Instead of turning the refugees back or adding to their plight, we must divert our resources towards rebuilding their future. I suggest we create a "Green Zone" in Greece, the same country that is on life-support IV funding from the EU. Sorry, Greece, you must now accept funds only under the conditions that you provide a safe haven for those fleeing radicalized Islam. You must house, feed and educate these lost souls until their belief in humanity is restored. But don't worry, many other nations, all with vested interest, will be diverting part of their military budgets to subsidize your efforts. Besides, it's high time the First World understands that the free ride is over. Freedom isn't free and, no, not only the Greeks will be mobilized in this effort. Scores of unemployed Spaniards, Italians, Portuguese AND Americans will be right there with you; building temporary shelters and roads, educating children, developing work programs and unwinding the labyrinth of religious nightmares to which they've tied their future, present and past.
Next, a critical piece. Able bodied refugee men (and women) will be called to active duty. They will take up arms, be trained by American and European forces and their ultimate goal will be to take back their countries. These troops will be the primary fighting forces that the Middle East will come to know and love for the next 15 or 150 years, or whatever it takes. But what if the men don't want the gig? Deport them now. If they won't put a dog in the fight, then neither should we. Let their countries devolve into the medeival hellholes they're on track to become now. But get the women and children out anyway and break the cycle of repression and violence. Only a fool could ignore the math here. Today's most heinous, violent perpetrators of ISIS's skewed worldview are young men, mostly in their 20's and 30's. That puts their date of birth around 1995 and just before. When did we invade and occupy Iraq? When did the most bombs fall? My friends, these are the children of "shock and awe." Don't forget that satisfying sense of revenge when we watched Baghdad get shelled on prime time. Well, these are the kids those bombs fell on.
Look. I'm not naive either. I know there's an "easier said than done" element to all of this. I know that, unfortunately, there are some people who are inherently evil and who would permanently benefit from being on the business end of our military's best technology. And by the way, I do have tremendous respect for our men and women in uniform --- let that be known too. But it's time for them to stop being held reponsible to prevail in a war of ideology. France, know that a military response is a trap. It's a road to ruin, for thousands of French citizens and for many times that in lives in the war zone.
So is this a game of winning hearts and minds? Yeah, I guess it really is. We've all known that all along. Does that mean the world needs to roll over and do nothing? No. Our challenge is as big as the pain we feel today, and very likely much bigger. But if we can harness all that makes us good and find a way to apply and distribute it to all who yearn for it so deeply, we can turn this tide. It is a tide that is already washing upon Europe's shores. It is not a tide of sporadic, tragic violence, the kind that rightly enflames our passions and seeks to be avenged. But it is one of huddled masses who quest for a better life. France can sympathize with this sentiment. In fact, they emblazoned it on our own Statue of Liberty many years ago.
#prayforparis
#notafraid
#jesuischarlie
Rob Spinosa
Executive Loan Advisor
NMLS: 22343 CalBRE: 01297944
Cell: 415-367-5959 Fax: 415-366-1590
rspinosa@rpm-mtg.com www.rpm-mtg.com/rspinosa
1058 Redwood Highway, Frontage Road, Mill Valley, CA 94941
RPM Mortgage, Inc. – NMLS#9472 – Licensed by the Department of Business Oversight under the Residential Mortgage Lending Act. Equal Housing Opportunity.
Comments(1)