Less than 24 hours after the attacks in Paris which left 129 people dead and at least 352 injured, the GOP candidates began to rush to the nearest TV camera so they could declare that if they were President, there was no way they would ever allow any refugees from the Syrian civil war into the United States.
And then yesterday the governors of 19 states–most of them in the South–signed orders refusing to admit any Syrian refugees into their states. This is, of course, nothing but political theater, as they have no power to allow or disallow any refugees. That power rests with the President of the United States.
But what about the children? Should children have to suffer? What about the orphans who have no family left because they have perished in the brutality of war?
Photographer Magnus Wennman will not allow us to look away or pretend the crisis does not exist. The Swedish photographer has begun a photo project that forces anyone looking at these images to confront the horrible reality these precious children are facing.
These images will haunt you. They did me.
This is Maram. She is 8 years old. A rocket destroyed her home. She was injured so badly that she was in a coma for 11 days. She is unable to speak due to a broken jaw.
This is Walaa. She is five years old, and lives in a refugee camp in Lebanon. Instead of the cozy bedroom she once enjoyed, she now sleeps on dirty pillows, which she is afraid of. Why is she afraid of the pillows? Because when she uses them to rest at night, the camp is attacked.
This is Ahmed. He is six years old, and sleeps on the bare grass at night. During the day, he travels long hours on foot with the rest of his family.
This is Ralia. Ralia is 7, and her brother, Rahaf, is 13. Their brother and mother are deceased, due to a grenade. They, along with their father, sleep on cardboard boxes in the streets of Beirut.
This is Shehd. She is 7, and she loves art. But all of her recent projects are frightening for a 7-year-old, and are full of guns and carnage. She and her family often struggle to find food to feed themselves.
This article was originally published by the same author at LiberalAmerica.org.