Nov 29^th

Dr. Ben Carson has been off to Jordan to enhance his foreign policy chops, or at least that tiny portion of foreign policy that deals with refugees. Carson visited two refugee camps in Jordan which shelter Syrian refugees. He now makes some claims based on his three-hour visit to Azdab camp and then some time at Zaatari camp. He claims that these refugees really just want to return to Syria.

There are 630 thousand UN registered refugees in Jordan; some estimates put the total number of refugees at one million. Just how many of those refugees do you suppose Carson talked to in the day long excursion he made to Jordan? As it happens most of these people recognize that it will be a very long time before it is safe for them to return to Syria. Assad’s barrel bombs have made them very nervous. Many of them have relatives who have already made the hazardous trip to Europe and they are encouraging their friends in the Jordanian camps to join them. As a result those refugees who still own property in Syria are trying to sell it to raise the several thousand dollars required for passage to Europe. Some are desperate enough to accept pennies on the dollar to raise the necessary capital.

The notion that these people want to return to Syria which they recently left for fear they would be slaughtered is naïve. Then Carson said, “Bringing 25 thousand refugees to this country does nothing to solve this crisis.” But the Obama administration never suggested bringing 25 thousand refugees here; it was ten thousand, and these only after an 18-month to two-year vetting process. The 10 thousand figure was widely circulated and most everyone was familiar with it…but apparently Carson was not. His handlers quickly came out with a revised comment which changed the 25 thousand to, “…from 10 thousand to 25 thousand....” That was a little late and not very effective; again, Carson had egg on his face.

Carson absolutely refused to have any journalists accompany this excursion so all we only know is what Carson and his handlers choose to tell us. Carson has been at war with journalists ever since they tried to verify some of his claims about his juvenile rage problem. They had trouble finding evidence that he was all that vicious and Carson made fun of them for bothering about something from his childhood. He has continued with this shtick of fulminating against the press at every opportunity. This is a smart move because it has kept him from having to answer questions about his policies and, as he doesn’t seem to have much in the way of policies to offer, his rants against the press nicely disguise that fact. The only time the man seems energized at all is when he is fuming about how the press has a double standard.