Carson’s Halloween candy solution for Syrian refugees

Ben Carson compared potential terrorists hiding among Syrian refugees to “rabid dogs”, and CNN was so offended that it made sure to shine the spotlight on the Republican presidential nominee’s purported faux pas. And again, I was a little bit surprised with the answer.

It also comes just a few days after Carson brought on a new adviser on faith matters, Johnnie Moore, who is known for his activism on behalf of Christians in the Middle East.

In his NBC interview, Carson said Jordanian camps need about $3 billion more a year, a number tantamount to what the US spends on “Halloween candy”. And that’s not what they want. They can’t continue that without the help of the global community.

Last week, Carson likened refugees fleeing the almost five-year civil war in Syria to “rabid dogs”.

“I find when you have first-hand knowledge of things as opposed to second-hand, it makes a much stronger impression”, he was quoted as telling the paper before his departure late on Thursday.

Then there’s the rather random mention of the United States maybe accepting 25,000 refugees but which, as tactfully as the Associate Press could phrase it, “it was not clear what Carson was referring to”.

“Is that going to be easier from a neighboring country or is that going to be easier from the United States of America?” he said on “This Week”. “But as you may or may not know, the facilities are not conducive to having any refugees stay there-they’re trying to get out of there”.

He spoke to The Associated Press via telephone from Jordan and said there doesn’t appear to be a real strong desire on the part of the refugees to come to the United States. It also says the Syrians are subjected to greater scrutiny than any other class of traveler.

What does that mean for the United States? I believe that the right policy is to support the refugee program that is in place, that works extremely well but does not have aid adequate funding. “If everybody could focus more attention on them and do everything that we can, including exclude their ability to move money, remove their ability to receive revenues from oil, take away the caliphate that they’ve established, and actually make sure that we eliminate any safe havens for them, I think a lot of the problems would be resolved, quite frankly”. So, you don’t know whether or not you would rules of engagement – Those of us who are not experts in that area can sit around all day long talking about, oh, we should do this and we should do that.

He said efforts to end the turmoil in Syria should be speeded up and a political solution found, saying it is unlikely embattled President Bashar Assad or the various factions in Syria individually could maintain peace in the country and avoid future turmoil. “And we need to be looking at mechanisms that already exist”.