Sometime ago, we told you Obama only cares about Obama. Here is the proof.
The United States came under more pressure on Sunday to help Europe find sanctuary for a flood of immigrants displaced by war and chaos, but Washington showed no signs of planning a dramatic increase in its intake of refugees.
David Miliband, head of the International Rescue Committee and former British foreign secretary, called on the U.S to bring out “the kind of leadership America has shown on these kind of issues” in the past.
“The U.S. has always been a leader in refugee resettlement but 1,500 people over four years is such a miniscule contribution to tackling the human side of this problem,” Miliband said on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.”
State Department spokesman John Kirby, in an interview with Reuters late on Saturday, offered no indication the U.S would be greatly boosting the number of immigrants it would allow into the country. He cited the $4 billion U.S. contribution to refugee relief and reconfirmed the Obama administration’s position about security concerns.
We told you Obama only cares about Obama. You can show him a million pictures of Aylan Kurdi dead on the beach and he will ignore them comfortably.
Kirby added:
“There is a significant vetting process here for folks from Syria that we have to follow.”
U.S. authorities want to prevent militants from ISIS or al-Qaeda from slipping into the country as refugees.
However, vetting process is independent of the number of refugees the U.S. can take. Unless Kirby is insinuating that millions of Syrian refugees are terrorists.
But there are risks to sticking to current policy and not playing a more active role in helping Europe. Another U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledged that, given the graphic images of the refugees’ plight, Washington may face an international image problem for admitting only a small number compared to European countries.
Was Obama not complaining that America looked bad everywhere in the world because of its policies? His apologies tours were supposed to cure the problem. Not when he looks as heartless and as selfish as he really is.
Obama only cares about Obama. Trust us on this one.
Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner on Refugees, said the U.S had not put a quota on the number of refugees it would accept. She said the UNHCR had submitted almost 16,300 refugees for resettlement in the U.S. and would continue submitting cases for consideration.
Reuters contributed to this article
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