WEBVTT - The American Refugee Crisis

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<v Speaker 1>You stand in line. Ahead of you, dozens of other

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<v Speaker 1>ragged figures stretch up to the horizon and the looming

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<v Speaker 1>edifice of the Canadian border station. You're cold, of course,

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<v Speaker 1>but so is everyone. You all shivered together. The sound

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<v Speaker 1>of chattering teeth is louder than the few muffled conversations

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<v Speaker 1>you hear around you. Almost no one is in any

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<v Speaker 1>mood to talk. Everything you own is stuffed into your backpack. Fleetingly,

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<v Speaker 1>you think about your old TV, your gaming consoles, the

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<v Speaker 1>comfy couch you used to relax on while watching Netflix. Netflix.

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<v Speaker 1>You almost tear up thinking about it. You can't remember

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<v Speaker 1>the last time you relaxed, the last beer you sipped,

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<v Speaker 1>the last good meal you enjoyed. A cold wind blows

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<v Speaker 1>across the line, and you feel it most acutely in

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<v Speaker 1>the bit of shrapnel that's been buried in your shoulder

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<v Speaker 1>for the last several months. Every twinge of pain it

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<v Speaker 1>brings you is rather ironically or reminder of how lucky

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<v Speaker 1>you are to have gotten out alive. There's been very

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<v Speaker 1>little news from home since you fled. The little bit

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<v Speaker 1>you've received during snippets of time when you've had both

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<v Speaker 1>power and electricity has been dire. Most of your friends

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<v Speaker 1>have gone dark. You try not to think about what

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<v Speaker 1>that means for them. It's taken three long, hungry, unshowered

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<v Speaker 1>weeks for you to reach the border. Your body is

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<v Speaker 1>at the edge of its endurance. For the last several days,

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<v Speaker 1>you've felt perpetually on the edge of collapse. But now

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<v Speaker 1>with the border in sight, you've been filled with a

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<v Speaker 1>peculiar new energy. You made it. You're going to survive.

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<v Speaker 1>You watches a van rolls up from the Canadian side

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<v Speaker 1>of the hastily thrown up border barricades. A film crew

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<v Speaker 1>steps out, a reporter begins chatting to some of the

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<v Speaker 1>people who've already made it through. You can't hear what

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<v Speaker 1>they say, but you can guess the questions well enough,

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<v Speaker 1>and makes you think back to times years ago when

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<v Speaker 1>you lazily flipped through ch V channels and caught footage

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<v Speaker 1>from some mainstream news station of a journalist talking to

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<v Speaker 1>Syrian refugees. You doubt you watch the story for more

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<v Speaker 1>than a few minutes. Now you wonder about all those

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<v Speaker 1>people where they are now, how many of them are

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<v Speaker 1>still alive. The line moves slowly, but cheerly, and in

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<v Speaker 1>time you're just a couple of people away from the

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<v Speaker 1>border guards. In front of you is a family of five.

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<v Speaker 1>The mother clutches the family Bible, holding on to it

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<v Speaker 1>as if for dear life. The father has a crucifix

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<v Speaker 1>hung around his neck. You think relatively little of this.

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<v Speaker 1>You grew up in America, after all, but the border

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<v Speaker 1>guards seemed to pick them out a suspicious Several of

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<v Speaker 1>them crowd around the family, hands wearily on holstered guns.

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<v Speaker 1>As you watch, their bags are unceremoniously emptied out and searched,

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<v Speaker 1>layers of clothing stripped off of even their bodies. You're

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<v Speaker 1>confused for a bit. The other families passing through hadn't

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<v Speaker 1>been subjected to that kind of treatment. And then you

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<v Speaker 1>think back to a few days ago, hanging out in

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<v Speaker 1>that bus station in Montana, the last time you'd been

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<v Speaker 1>able to charge up your phone and find some WiFi.

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<v Speaker 1>There'd been a terrible shooting in Vancouver. Half a dozen

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<v Speaker 1>Christian dominionists, terrorists from America had smuggled guns up, probably

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<v Speaker 1>from somewhere in Washington. They'd hit up a concert venue,

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<v Speaker 1>killing dozens dozens of people. For a moment, you're ashamed

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<v Speaker 1>that it took you so long to remember that attack,

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<v Speaker 1>you realize that it didn't really stand out to you

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<v Speaker 1>at the time. Your last few months have been filled

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<v Speaker 1>with violence so much more extreme and indiscriminate that the

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<v Speaker 1>news of this tragedy just sort of rolled over you

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<v Speaker 1>like morning fog. It didn't even stick in your head.

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<v Speaker 1>You notice now, though, that the Canadian soldiers and border

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<v Speaker 1>guards manning this crossing look conspicuously less friendly than you'd expected.

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<v Speaker 1>Friendly is, of course the first word that comes to

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<v Speaker 1>mind when you think about Canadians, but these men and

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<v Speaker 1>women seem anxious, jittery, and perhaps even a little bit angry.

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<v Speaker 1>After a long search, the family ahead of you was

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<v Speaker 1>walked through the border crossing. Border patrol men follow them in,

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<v Speaker 1>and they're led to a separate waiting area from the

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<v Speaker 1>other refugees. The lion moves up. You step forward, that

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<v Speaker 1>much closer to safety. You look up at one of

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<v Speaker 1>the guards. He glares back at you, and once again

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<v Speaker 1>you feel less certain about the future. What stereotypically is

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<v Speaker 1>an American. I've spent a lot of time traveling, and

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<v Speaker 1>I've made friends from all around the world, most notably Israel, Serbia, Germany, France, England,

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<v Speaker 1>and Iraq, So I hope you'll forgive my arrogance and

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<v Speaker 1>starting with my own opinions on stereotypes about Americans before

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<v Speaker 1>we get into a little bit of research. We Americans

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<v Speaker 1>are first and foremost seen as a loud people. Most

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<v Speaker 1>foreigners I know have emphasized that about US. Americans have

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<v Speaker 1>a reputation for being fun to great party goers, were

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<v Speaker 1>seen as passionate and of course fat. That's definitely another stereotype.

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<v Speaker 1>And we are obviously seen as a heavily armed people.

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<v Speaker 1>When I first started traveling and people would find out

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<v Speaker 1>that I came from Texas, many of them would ask

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<v Speaker 1>if I owned guns, which I did and do. I

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<v Speaker 1>can remember one particularly poignant conversation I had with the

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<v Speaker 1>Venezuelan man and a hostel in Belfast, Ireland. It was

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<v Speaker 1>three or four days after the Sandy Hook shooting in

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<v Speaker 1>late two thousand and twelve. Now, Venezuela has and had

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<v Speaker 1>plenty of problems with violence and a nightmarishly high murder rate,

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<v Speaker 1>but I'll always remember the confusion in this guy's voice

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<v Speaker 1>when he said to me, but nobody shoots up a school.

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<v Speaker 1>Nobody does that. So maybe add that to the list

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<v Speaker 1>of stereotypes about Americans. An awful lot of us are

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<v Speaker 1>willing to shoot up schools. I found a fun CBS

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<v Speaker 1>News article how Americans look to the rest of the world,

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<v Speaker 1>and I figured some of those anecdotes would be good

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<v Speaker 1>to pat out my own experience in the matter. I

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<v Speaker 1>want to read to one from an actor in Toronto

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<v Speaker 1>and another from a retired banker in Copenhagen. Quote. The

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<v Speaker 1>first word that comes to mind when I hear the

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<v Speaker 1>word America is arrogance. They are big and loud, and

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<v Speaker 1>they are in charge of everything. And the next capitalism,

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<v Speaker 1>money rules everything. Overweight people, Donald Trump elections shootings. Now.

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<v Speaker 1>One thing that's interesting to me about this article is

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<v Speaker 1>that while positive opinions did outnumber negative ones, people fromation,

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<v Speaker 1>is generally considered culturally closer to the United States were

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<v Speaker 1>more likely to refer to US as arrogant or violent.

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<v Speaker 1>Here's a representative opinion on Americans from a twenty six

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<v Speaker 1>year old in New Delhi. Has a very liberal culture,

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<v Speaker 1>great people in a country that drives innovation. Another interviewee

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<v Speaker 1>from the Philippines said America welcomes all different races. That's

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<v Speaker 1>what she believed about us. It's interesting food for thought.

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<v Speaker 1>At least, why am I talking about all this? What

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<v Speaker 1>does it have to do with the Second American Civil War? Well,

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<v Speaker 1>what are some stereotypes you know about iraqis Afghan people, Syrians?

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<v Speaker 1>We don't wars mean refugees. It is one commonality that

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<v Speaker 1>literally every conflict in modern history shares. If there is

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<v Speaker 1>shooting in American cities, if there are bombings in the

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<v Speaker 1>hills and on the highways, there will be people who flee.

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<v Speaker 1>Many of them will become internally displaced within the country,

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<v Speaker 1>fleeing bombed out neighborhoods and unsafe chunks of the country

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<v Speaker 1>ahead of growing militias and insurgent groups. Now, you probably

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<v Speaker 1>don't know much about Syria in two thousand ten, the

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<v Speaker 1>year before the Arab Spring. That's fine. Until pretty recently,

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<v Speaker 1>I didn't either. That year, Syria was one of the

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<v Speaker 1>fastest growing, lower middle income countries in the world. It

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<v Speaker 1>was host to a huge amount of tourism and agriculture,

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<v Speaker 1>decent industry, healthcare and college were free. It had a dictator,

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<v Speaker 1>Bashar al Assad, but he was widely seen as at

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<v Speaker 1>least a mild reformer. Things seemed to be slowly opening

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<v Speaker 1>up when I was eighteen. In my first year of college,

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<v Speaker 1>I took two semesters of Arabic from a Syrian professor

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<v Speaker 1>named Yasser. Yaser hailed from Aleppo, and he was deeply

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<v Speaker 1>proud of his city. He taught us about how it

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<v Speaker 1>gave birth to the alphabet. He spoke lovingly and at

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<v Speaker 1>length about its beauty, about the wonderful food. He introduced

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<v Speaker 1>me to Arabic coffee and thoroughly convinced me that Syrian

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<v Speaker 1>were better at brewing the drink than anyone else on

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<v Speaker 1>this planet. I've traveled through a decent chunk of the

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<v Speaker 1>Middle East now, and I still believe that the war

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<v Speaker 1>began in two thousand eleven, five years after my classes

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<v Speaker 1>with Yasar. By two thousand fifteen, more than three million

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<v Speaker 1>Syrians had fled the fighting for neighboring countries like Lebanon,

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<v Speaker 1>which is considered by me and only me, to be serious.

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<v Speaker 1>Canada two thousand fifteen was the first year my journalism

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<v Speaker 1>intersected with the Syrians civil war. A few days after

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<v Speaker 1>my trip to report on the war in Ukraine, I

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<v Speaker 1>found myself crossing the Hungarian Serbian border on foot. One

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<v Speaker 1>million Syrian refugees made it over to Europe that year,

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<v Speaker 1>and the bulk of them traveled on foot from Greece

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<v Speaker 1>up through the Balkans and into Western Europe. We spent

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<v Speaker 1>a couple of days on the refugee trail, watching endless,

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<v Speaker 1>unbroken lines of refugees trudged closer and closer to their

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<v Speaker 1>ultimate goal, usually Germany or somewhere in Scandinavia. A huge

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<v Speaker 1>number of these people spoke English. They were just normal people,

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<v Speaker 1>like anyone you'd meet on the street. Many of them

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<v Speaker 1>had smart phones, which they used to show me pictures

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<v Speaker 1>of Bashar al Assad's war crimes. Some of them were

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<v Speaker 1>young men, fresh college graduates, who saw no future in

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<v Speaker 1>their home country and hoped Europe could use their skills

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<v Speaker 1>in medicine, engineering, or whatever. Other young men were fleeing

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<v Speaker 1>the draft issued by the government. I met one man

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<v Speaker 1>who had been a pilot for the Syrian Air Force.

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<v Speaker 1>He'd grown tired of bombing his countrymen. I don't think

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<v Speaker 1>I've ever met a man with older eyes. I wrote

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<v Speaker 1>an article about the things these refugees told me for

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<v Speaker 1>Crack to the Side I worked for at the time.

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<v Speaker 1>Been Shapiro of The Daily Wire wrote an article too.

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<v Speaker 1>His article was titled the Left keeps saying all Syrian

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<v Speaker 1>refugees are Western friendly, they should learn to read. The

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<v Speaker 1>crux of his argument was that Syrian refugees were not

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<v Speaker 1>compatible with Western society since only seventy of them were

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<v Speaker 1>totally negative on isis quote from Ben So what does

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<v Speaker 1>this all mean. It means that the evidenceless picture all

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<v Speaker 1>of all Syrian refugees is Western friendly doesn't hold water.

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<v Speaker 1>But don't look for the media or the international left

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<v Speaker 1>to pay attention to such facts. After all, these are

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<v Speaker 1>the same people who keep stating, without evidence that only

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<v Speaker 1>a tiny minority of Muslims hold extreme views. When fact

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<v Speaker 1>conflicts with pretty fiction, the left chooses its own pretty

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<v Speaker 1>fictions every time, which just means that more Westerners will die.

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<v Speaker 1>And this brings me back to the point I started

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<v Speaker 1>this episode with, what are the rest of the world

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<v Speaker 1>stereotypes about Americans? And how will those stereotypes evolve after

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<v Speaker 1>several years of escalating violence in surgeon attacks and terrorist murder.

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<v Speaker 1>Once insurgents start bombing highways, shooting cops and assassinating politicians,

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<v Speaker 1>once separatists start fighting against the government and whole cities

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<v Speaker 1>are beyond the reach of the law, Once the Second

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<v Speaker 1>American Civil War really gets going, the violence will not

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<v Speaker 1>stay contained to our shores. In June of two thousand fourteen,

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<v Speaker 1>the forces of the Islamic State captured Mosel, the second

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<v Speaker 1>largest city in Iraq. Isis is generally portrayed in Western

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<v Speaker 1>media as having sort of come out of nowhere, but

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<v Speaker 1>that is not the truth. In Iraq, it evolved out

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<v Speaker 1>of long standing hardline, sunny dominionist movements. They framed themselves

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<v Speaker 1>as resistance against both the growing secular aspects of Iraqi

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<v Speaker 1>society and their long standing religious nimessies. The Shia in

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<v Speaker 1>Portland and in Dallas. In Cleveland and northern California, I

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<v Speaker 1>have seen angry, heavily armed men preached their desire for

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<v Speaker 1>a Christian dominated United States. The crosses tattooed on their

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<v Speaker 1>arms and sewn on to their body armor were just

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<v Speaker 1>as prominent as their three percent tattoos and Confederate flags.

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<v Speaker 1>Right now, an American traveling abroad might face uncomfortable questions

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<v Speaker 1>about Donald Trump. Imagine what an American fleeing from Texas

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<v Speaker 1>might face as he tried to enter the EU or

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<v Speaker 1>Canada in the wake of a series of brutal Christian

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<v Speaker 1>nationalist pograms against LGBT Americans. If you remember, Omar Matinees

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<v Speaker 1>ISIS credited mass shooting at a gay night club was

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<v Speaker 1>used as justification by the Trump campaign for why Syrian

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<v Speaker 1>refugees should not be accepted into the United States. A

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<v Speaker 1>few months after my time on the refugee trail, in

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<v Speaker 1>November of two thousand fifteen, a handful of ISIS commandos

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<v Speaker 1>carried out a brutal attack on Paris, killing more than

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<v Speaker 1>a hundred and thirty people, most of whom were concert

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<v Speaker 1>glowers at the Bottaklan Theater. According to ISIS, the attack

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<v Speaker 1>was retaliation for French air strikes and Syria and Iraq. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>as imaginative as I can be, I have a hard

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<v Speaker 1>time seeing France or Canada or any other country carrying

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<v Speaker 1>out air strikes on the United States. We have nukes,

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<v Speaker 1>for one thing, and that's really the only thing that

0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:34.400
<v Speaker 1>matters when it comes to discouraging air strikes. But I

0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:37.400
<v Speaker 1>can imagine other countries providing financial aid to the struggling

0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.360
<v Speaker 1>federal government as it battles to maintain control. I can

0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.560
<v Speaker 1>imagine them sending in peacekeepers and humanitarian aid to try

0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:45.960
<v Speaker 1>and save gay people and people of color and areas

0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.800
<v Speaker 1>threatened by white nationalist or dominionist violence. And I can

0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:53.600
<v Speaker 1>imagine Christian terrorists striking back at them with attacks similar

0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:57.360
<v Speaker 1>to the ones launched by ISIS. And if that happens,

0:12:57.600 --> 0:13:01.040
<v Speaker 1>millions of American refugees might find themselves judged by the

0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:04.160
<v Speaker 1>actions of a few of their most violent countrymen, just

0:13:04.280 --> 0:13:06.679
<v Speaker 1>as the Syrian and Afghan refugees I met in two

0:13:06.679 --> 0:13:09.680
<v Speaker 1>thousand fifteen were judged by the actions of a handful

0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:12.520
<v Speaker 1>of terrorists, most of whom were not even from Syria

0:13:12.640 --> 0:13:16.480
<v Speaker 1>or Afghanistan. By two thousand fifteen, after four years of

0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:19.520
<v Speaker 1>civil war, nearly five million Syrians had been forced to

0:13:19.520 --> 0:13:23.319
<v Speaker 1>flee their homeland. Syria's pre war population was just twenty

0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.120
<v Speaker 1>three million. If our imagined second American Civil War grew

0:13:27.160 --> 0:13:30.679
<v Speaker 1>to anything approaching that kind of intensity and a proportionate

0:13:30.760 --> 0:13:33.320
<v Speaker 1>number of Americans were forced to flee the fighting, we

0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:36.240
<v Speaker 1>could see as many as eighty million of our countrymen

0:13:36.280 --> 0:13:39.720
<v Speaker 1>and women made refugees. Now, most of these people would

0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:42.720
<v Speaker 1>stay within the bounds of the United States, becoming internally

0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.560
<v Speaker 1>displaced persons. In Iraq, the acronym I d P was

0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:48.360
<v Speaker 1>used for the folks who had fled from the fighting

0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:51.480
<v Speaker 1>and Mosle and other areas captured by ISIS. Most I

0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.600
<v Speaker 1>d p s were herded into vast, tense cities, living

0:13:54.640 --> 0:13:58.000
<v Speaker 1>in canvas and provided for by the UN Humanitarian Crisis

0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:01.720
<v Speaker 1>Relief Organization and eating food provided by the Qatari Red Crescent.

0:14:02.120 --> 0:14:07.800
<v Speaker 1>They brought what they could carry and nothing more. We

0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:19.040
<v Speaker 1>don't In the event of a second American civil war,

0:14:19.160 --> 0:14:21.280
<v Speaker 1>the government would do its best to take care of

0:14:21.320 --> 0:14:24.040
<v Speaker 1>millions of displaced citizens. But in the midst of a

0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.720
<v Speaker 1>war and a failing economy, I do not think these

0:14:26.720 --> 0:14:30.840
<v Speaker 1>camps would be overwhelmingly pleasant places. My mind is drawn

0:14:30.880 --> 0:14:34.000
<v Speaker 1>to the treatment of the homeless and modern America, we

0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.920
<v Speaker 1>as a culture sort of suck assid taking care of

0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:40.680
<v Speaker 1>our needy in good times. A government prosecuting a brutal

0:14:40.720 --> 0:14:44.760
<v Speaker 1>internesting war probably wouldn't win any awards for cleanest, best

0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:49.280
<v Speaker 1>fed refugee camps. Stories of these miserable places would spread

0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:52.880
<v Speaker 1>as millions of other Americans watched anxiously and considered whether

0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:55.760
<v Speaker 1>or not they ought to flee themselves. Increasing numbers of

0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:59.200
<v Speaker 1>US would seek shelter in Canada or northern Mexico. The

0:14:59.360 --> 0:15:02.160
<v Speaker 1>rich would flee first, of course, probably to Europe. They

0:15:02.160 --> 0:15:04.320
<v Speaker 1>would have the resources to pay their way into visas

0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.520
<v Speaker 1>and replant their lives and cities like Berlin. The first

0:15:07.600 --> 0:15:11.120
<v Speaker 1>wave of vulnerable refugees, Activists, people of color, gay and

0:15:11.160 --> 0:15:15.040
<v Speaker 1>trans individuals would also probably have a relatively simple time

0:15:15.120 --> 0:15:18.960
<v Speaker 1>earning refugee visas and places like Europe. But as the

0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.360
<v Speaker 1>number of fleeing Americans increased from thousands to tens and

0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:26.040
<v Speaker 1>hundreds of thousands, and eventually to millions, the world's patients

0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:29.680
<v Speaker 1>with US would wear out. Stories of terrorist attacks by

0:15:29.680 --> 0:15:34.040
<v Speaker 1>American extremists would color world opinion of US. Canada is

0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:37.960
<v Speaker 1>the world's seventh most peaceful society, Iceland is the world's

0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:42.040
<v Speaker 1>most peaceful society. Most European nations are fairly high on

0:15:42.040 --> 0:15:46.160
<v Speaker 1>that list. The United States, however, is currently number ninety four.

0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:49.760
<v Speaker 1>We will not rise higher during a second American Civil war.

0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.280
<v Speaker 1>One of the people interviewed in that CBS article about

0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.480
<v Speaker 1>world stereotypes of Americans was a thirty nine year old

0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:01.000
<v Speaker 1>from Toronto. He said, what identifies an America in loudness?

0:16:01.160 --> 0:16:03.360
<v Speaker 1>All of the Trump stuff in the US has been depressing.

0:16:03.480 --> 0:16:05.360
<v Speaker 1>You would like to think people are smarter than that,

0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.040
<v Speaker 1>but definitely surprising and depressing to see how much support

0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:11.600
<v Speaker 1>he has and how much support his ideas have. Imagine

0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.240
<v Speaker 1>how this guy's opinion of us would harden after stories

0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.960
<v Speaker 1>of gay people being gunned down or burned alive by

0:16:17.040 --> 0:16:21.680
<v Speaker 1>Christian nationalists, after terrorists bombings from eco fascist cadres, after

0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.120
<v Speaker 1>right wing militias and leftist guerrillas shoot up home neighborhoods.

0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:27.560
<v Speaker 1>How long will it take that guy and millions of

0:16:27.560 --> 0:16:30.600
<v Speaker 1>Canadians like him to go from Americans are loud and

0:16:30.680 --> 0:16:33.360
<v Speaker 1>kind of annoying too. We need to shut down all

0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:38.320
<v Speaker 1>American immigration until we figure out what's going on now.

0:16:38.680 --> 0:16:40.320
<v Speaker 1>That might have been a good note to end this

0:16:40.400 --> 0:16:43.440
<v Speaker 1>episode on, but the unofficial motto of this show is

0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.800
<v Speaker 1>it can always get darker, and it's about to because

0:16:46.880 --> 0:16:49.440
<v Speaker 1>human beings will not be the only people displaced by

0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:54.120
<v Speaker 1>the Second American Civil War. There are currently roughly one

0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:56.600
<v Speaker 1>hundred and eighty million cats and dogs living in the

0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:00.080
<v Speaker 1>United States. Their numbers are actually close to eve and

0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:03.040
<v Speaker 1>cats out numbered dogs by around five million or so.

0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.520
<v Speaker 1>Both species are capable of surviving on their own, or

0:17:06.520 --> 0:17:09.080
<v Speaker 1>at least certain members of both species are, but they

0:17:09.119 --> 0:17:12.200
<v Speaker 1>seem to vastly prefer life with human beings to life without.

0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:15.120
<v Speaker 1>If you're listening to this, the odds are pretty good

0:17:15.160 --> 0:17:17.160
<v Speaker 1>that you have a pet, a cat or a dog,

0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.560
<v Speaker 1>or both, or possibly several of both, and you certainly

0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:23.280
<v Speaker 1>love them as much as they love you. Right now,

0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:26.520
<v Speaker 1>it may be impossible for you to imagine abandoning them.

0:17:26.520 --> 0:17:28.800
<v Speaker 1>Perhaps you would try to take them with you as

0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:31.640
<v Speaker 1>the mortars started falling on your neighborhood, as the death

0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.000
<v Speaker 1>squads broke through to your street, as the government helicopters

0:17:35.040 --> 0:17:38.679
<v Speaker 1>began reigning hell fire down around you, But most of

0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.000
<v Speaker 1>you would leave them. I know that, because I know

0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.560
<v Speaker 1>the citizens of Abdifka, Ukraine, loved their cats and dogs

0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.040
<v Speaker 1>as well as you do. But when the Russian backed

0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:49.800
<v Speaker 1>separatists started pounding the town with a hundred and fifty

0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:53.280
<v Speaker 1>five millimeter howitzer shells and grad rockets, the ones who

0:17:53.280 --> 0:17:56.720
<v Speaker 1>could leave, the young and the moneyed left, and many

0:17:56.760 --> 0:17:59.800
<v Speaker 1>of them left their beloved pets behind. There was simply

0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:04.520
<v Speaker 1>no other option. War does not stop for your sentiments,

0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:08.159
<v Speaker 1>and so has the town of ev Dievka, emptied of

0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.800
<v Speaker 1>human beings, it filled with abandoned animals. Cats and dogs

0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.440
<v Speaker 1>hid at first in the abandoned homes of their masters,

0:18:14.840 --> 0:18:17.280
<v Speaker 1>but once it got too cold, they began to congregate

0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:19.800
<v Speaker 1>around the heating pipes that ran from building to building,

0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:24.160
<v Speaker 1>providing the central heating necessary in Ukraine's unbelievably harsh winters.

0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:27.320
<v Speaker 1>The junction boxes, where several of these pipes met, were

0:18:27.359 --> 0:18:31.720
<v Speaker 1>particularly popular, and the remaining denizens of Abdivka, mostly older people,

0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:34.679
<v Speaker 1>started setting out food and building small shelters for the

0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:37.960
<v Speaker 1>abandoned animals. It was not lost on me when I

0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.280
<v Speaker 1>visited in two thousand fifteen that while human beings murdered

0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:43.880
<v Speaker 1>each other a mile away, cats and dogs had learned

0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:46.439
<v Speaker 1>to get along and share the same home and food.

0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:50.159
<v Speaker 1>One optimistic thing I can tell you is that for

0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:52.800
<v Speaker 1>all the violence and of bloodshed a second American Civil

0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:55.760
<v Speaker 1>War would bring, I suspect there would be numerous figures

0:18:55.800 --> 0:18:59.000
<v Speaker 1>on every side, leaders of right and left wing militias alike,

0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:01.280
<v Speaker 1>who would take time out from the fighting to care

0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:04.919
<v Speaker 1>for abandoned animals. In two thousand thirteen, I read a

0:19:04.920 --> 0:19:08.800
<v Speaker 1>fantastic article on the conflict journalism website war is Boring

0:19:09.000 --> 0:19:12.159
<v Speaker 1>about a Syrian rebel commander named Jamal. I'm going to

0:19:12.240 --> 0:19:15.960
<v Speaker 1>quote from that now. He commands rebel forces in the

0:19:16.000 --> 0:19:18.919
<v Speaker 1>ruins of an ancient mountaintop village in northern Syria. He

0:19:19.000 --> 0:19:22.320
<v Speaker 1>daily dodges bombs and rockets from regime warplanes and silent,

0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.159
<v Speaker 1>invisible bullets from enemy sharpshooters. He leads his men in

0:19:25.200 --> 0:19:28.639
<v Speaker 1>battle unarmed, equipped only with a walkie talkie for issuing orders.

0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.960
<v Speaker 1>He also rescues abandoned cats, hundreds of them hiding out

0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:34.240
<v Speaker 1>in the ruins of Adaha, one of the most important

0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:38.119
<v Speaker 1>battlegrounds of the three year old Syrian Civil War. Jamal

0:19:38.200 --> 0:19:40.800
<v Speaker 1>was a farmer in his mid fifties when the war started.

0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:42.560
<v Speaker 1>He was just a normal man with a love of

0:19:42.600 --> 0:19:46.000
<v Speaker 1>animals who found himself thrust into vicious fighting. And when

0:19:46.080 --> 0:19:49.000
<v Speaker 1>he wasn't fighting, he fed and cared for countless kittie

0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:53.400
<v Speaker 1>cats left behind by their owners. Quote. The felines are everywhere,

0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:57.200
<v Speaker 1>sleeping into rebel bunkers, to mew at officers conferring over radios,

0:19:57.280 --> 0:19:59.480
<v Speaker 1>rolling in the sun baked dirt between mounds of rubble,

0:19:59.560 --> 0:20:02.800
<v Speaker 1>lounging under tree sheared of their branches by gunfire and artillery.

0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.359
<v Speaker 1>An accurate count is impossible, but during our day long

0:20:05.440 --> 0:20:07.600
<v Speaker 1>visit in early October, we saw scores of them in

0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:10.600
<v Speaker 1>just one small section of the village. Jamal loves cats.

0:20:10.800 --> 0:20:14.879
<v Speaker 1>Who doesn't, he says. Indeed, his family, his wife, two sons,

0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:16.879
<v Speaker 1>and two daughters have two cats of their own at

0:20:16.880 --> 0:20:19.720
<v Speaker 1>their home in southern Isleb. When his forces occupied the

0:20:19.720 --> 0:20:22.960
<v Speaker 1>mountain village, they found almost no people but countless hungry kitties.

0:20:23.200 --> 0:20:26.760
<v Speaker 1>The rebels in Araja survive on cantuna, sardines and processed meat,

0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:31.080
<v Speaker 1>and now so do the cats. As I write this episode,

0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.240
<v Speaker 1>Russian and Syrian war planes are currently pounding id Lib

0:20:34.520 --> 0:20:39.640
<v Speaker 1>Jamal's home with indiscriminate bombs from above. Jamal is almost

0:20:39.640 --> 0:20:42.440
<v Speaker 1>certainly dead now, along with most of the courageous men

0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:45.760
<v Speaker 1>and women who dared to defy Bashar al Assad. But

0:20:45.840 --> 0:20:48.280
<v Speaker 1>we will see his like again if a second civil

0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:51.120
<v Speaker 1>war comes to this land and forces hundreds of thousands

0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.320
<v Speaker 1>of men and women to fight a war they never

0:20:53.359 --> 0:21:09.000
<v Speaker 1>thought would come. All friends, you can can you get

0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:10.920
<v Speaker 1>me home? Can you tell the two with so much

0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:18.400
<v Speaker 1>friends a fence? Perhaps the birds? That is pretty intensive

0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:25.600
<v Speaker 1>because it wants I'm Robert Evans and I'm just exhausted

0:21:25.680 --> 0:21:27.800
<v Speaker 1>from reading all of that. You can find me on

0:21:27.840 --> 0:21:30.159
<v Speaker 1>Twitter at I right, Okay, you can find this show

0:21:30.280 --> 0:21:33.640
<v Speaker 1>on Twitter at happen here Pod, and you can find

0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:37.080
<v Speaker 1>the show online at it could happen here pod dot com.

0:21:37.080 --> 0:21:40.000
<v Speaker 1>Our music, as always, is from four Fists