On Thursday night, Donald Trump ordered the launch of 59 missiles at a Syrian airbase in response to President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical attack against his own citizens. While Trump’s actions have drawn criticism from his own supporters as well as progressives who see his sudden involvement as hypocritical considering his ban on refugees, one of the faces of the Syrian refugee crisis has spoken out in support of Trump’s strike.
Bana Alabed, the 7-year-old Syrian refugee whose Twitter account recounted the horrors of living in Aleppo while Assad’s army attacked rebel forces, was critical of Trump when he planned to enact his first travel ban. But after the airstrike, she welcomed action against Assad and the people who launched attacks against Syrian citizens.
https://twitter.com/AlabedBana/status/850252389114200065
https://twitter.com/AlabedBana/status/850259244498550784
We don't want WORLD WAR THREE. we don't want the war in Syria. let's stand together & end all wars.
— Bana Alabed (@AlabedBana) April 7, 2017
For many, Alabed’s posts about her life before and after being evacuated from Aleppo late last year gave a harrowing look at the Syrian refugee crisis—and highlighted the lack of action from the rest of the world. Although Alabed wanted Assad to be punished, she doesn’t want war in Syria, or at all.
Days before Trump’s airstrike on Syria, Alabed spoke to CNN about the chemical attacks on Syrians, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of citizens and left hundreds sick.
“The world is watching,” she said. “The world doesn’t do anything.”
"The world doesn’t do anything." 7-year-old refugee Bana Alabed pleads with the world to help Syria's children https://t.co/IfQQIJRjR7 pic.twitter.com/XuSjBE1ba0
— CNN (@CNN) April 5, 2017
H/T CNN