Editorial: Human tragedy about more than world politics

Michelle Nunn, head of the venerable international relief organization CARE, called the flood of refugees from Syria the world's largest humanitarian crisis since World War II. That might or might not be an apt comparison, but there's no doubt that the millions of desperate people fleeing civil war-ravaged Syria is a human horror story of massive dimensions.

There is, sadly but perhaps inevitably, the usual political jockeying going on about the crisis. Voices on the right say an inadequate U.S. response has helped fuel the violence, with many, also inevitably, beating war drums. Voices on the left, including Nunn's, call for diplomatic and political solutions, and some say the U.S. should take in even more refugees than the 85,000 President Obama has said will be allowed here.

Nunn is the daughter of the former longtime senator Sam Nunn, D-Ga., and was the unsuccessful 2014 Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by the retirement of Saxby Chambliss. Her undoubtedly sincere but overly idealistic take on the reality of the crisis suggests why she might be far more suited -- at least for now -- as leader of a humanitarian relief agency than a policymaker.

The tyrannical regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is backed by Russia; some of the rebels trying to overthrow the Assad government are backed by the United States; and looming over it all is the terrorist horror of the Islamic State. Where in all that bloody chaos a diplomatic or political solution might be found is a question that would tax the historic wisdom of an earlier Middle Easterner named Solomon.

But when it comes to CARE's role in trying to provide help and comfort in the face of this daunting tide of human misery, Nunn's focus is point-on.

In a Friday address to the Atlanta Press Club, she announced plans for a social media campaign through which people who want to help can find ways to do so. What Nunn said refugees need, according to Walter Jones of Morris News Service, are "jobs, basic resources and, in the long term, hope for their children."

It is estimated that some 4 million people have left Syria over the last four years of civil war, with about 700,000 of them having migrated into Europe so far this year. Many are in Jordan and Turkey, where Nunn recently visited to meet with some of the families.

Many told her, she said, that they "literally don't know how we're going to make it through the winter." The crisis will only get worse, Nunn told her Atlanta audience, "if we don't support people to rebuild their lives and create some hope in the places where they are living."

The debates over what has happened and why, and what should happen and when, will go on. The desperate need for human help is here and now.

This story was originally published October 3, 2015 at 11:43 PM with the headline "Editorial: Human tragedy about more than world politics ."