Europe's Refugee Crisis: Made in the USA

Not being in range of MENA emboldens Americans to #$%^ up the region for others to deal with.

How does the saying go... With "friends" like the United States, who needs enemies? American offenses against Europe are countless. In the economic realm, they induced a global financial crisis that subsequently walloped marginal European economies. Meanwhile, in the security realm, they spy on EU leaders remorselessly. However, this security issue--inducing disorder in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, causing refugees to flow into Western Europe in droves--has received less attention.

The Council on Foreign Relations is usually a fine source for international relations-related news. However, I have a quibble this time around with their description of wave after wave of people deserting MENA as a "Europe's migration crisis." To be accurate, it is a refugee crisis caused by political displacement induced by the Americans. Let us go back to 2009 when US President Barack Obama effectively invoked the right to revolt against MENA governments, a "new beginning," that did not live up to expectations:

But I do have an unyielding belief that all people yearn for certain things:  the ability to speak your mind and have a say in how you are governed; confidence in the rule of law and the equal administration of justice; government that is transparent and doesn't steal from the people; the freedom to live as you choose.  These are not just American ideas; they are human rights.  And that is why we will support them everywhere. 

Yippee! America #1 and all that jazz. All this subsequent Arab Spring tomfoolery--Western intervention on behalf of anti-Qaddhafi rebels, continued arming of Syrian rebels by the US and so forth are but continuations of American meddling which famously began with the invasion of Iraq on false pretenses. The difference is that they got the locals to do some of the dirty work, but the disastrous results are the same. Go ask the refugees. Insofar as European countries have played along with the US, it's partly their fault. However, the EU countries most gung-ho about intervening in the affairs of other countries--Great Britain and France--do so from a position of safety, knowing that they aren't on the Mediterranean coast of Europe where these refugees often land:

The EU member states hardest hit by the economic crisis—Greece, Italy, Malta, Cyprus, and Spain—have also served as the main points of entry for migrants and refugees because of their proximity to the Mediterranean Basin. The Eastern Mediterranean route has seen the highest level of irregular migration since 2008. In 2012, 51 percent of migrants (PDF) entering the EU illegally did so via Greece. That shifted in 2013 after Greek authorities enhanced border controls under Operation Aspida (or "Shield"), which included the construction of a barbed-wire fence at the Greek-Turkish border.

Increased Spanish patrols in the waters off western Africa have curbed migration along the Western Mediterranean passage in recent years. However, 2013 saw an uptick in activity along the Strait of Gibraltar, with new reports surfacing of migrants traveling in dinghies to elude detection.

With the resurgent popularity of the Central Mediterranean passage in 2013, Italy and Malta have borne the brunt of the most recent wave of irregular migration. According to Frontex, there were more than 31,000 illegal border crossings along this route during the first nine months of 2013, almost quadruple the number of detections there compared to the same period in 2012. Several major incidents of boats capsizing off the coast of Lampedusa last year, including one in October 2013 that claimed more than 360 lives, garnered global attention and elicited calls from human rights activists, Pope Francis, and policymakers for a united European response to the migration crisis.

And so it is that the US screwed over the "Club Med" countries in both the economic and security realms. First the US-made subprime crisis sunk their already-fragile economies, inducing a credit crisis. Having made them quite hard up, the next step was to shower them with refugees by messing up MENA countries whom they could hardly accommodate financially. 

Following the Pottery Barn principle, two substantial financial transfers are overdue here. First, within the EU, the British and French who meddled in MENA should compensate the Mediterranean countries affected by the destabilization they have wrought elsewhere. Second, the US should also foot the bill for Greece, Italy, Malta, Cyprus and Spain insofar as its dastardly deeds induced people to leave their home countries in MENA. It's the humane thing to do having caused so much misery in that part of the world people are now fleeing in droves.

Where does Obama get this wet-behind-the-ears speechwriters plying all this 'freedom 'n' growth nonsense? The honest truth is that the idiots dumb enough to try it have made their countries worse off--witness the thousands now fleeing them as a result of Made in America busybodying. Make the bastards foot the bill for sticking their noses where they don't belong.

BTW: Bulgaria also needs financial help due to refugee flows from the American-financed Syrian civil war.