Marine Veteran Criticizes House Vote on Syrian Refugees

November 20, 2015 12:37 PM EST

U.S. Marine and novelist Phil Klay took to Twitter on Thursday to voice his disapproval of the House vote approving a bill that increases restrictions on Syrian refugees entering the U.S.

Klay served in Iraq from 2007 to 2008, and the novel he wrote upon return, Redeployment, won the 2014 National Book Award for fiction. “It’s only during frightening times when you get to find out if your country really deserves to call itself the ‘home of the brave’,” Klay wrote in his series of Tweets. Read his thoughts in full below:

1. Tremendously upset by attempt to effectively close our borders to Syrian refugees by imposing impossible-to-implement screening standards
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

2. When I swore my oath of office as a Marine officer, I swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

3. The Marine hymn claims that Marines are the “first to fight for right and freedom and to keep our honor clean.”
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

4. You’re not supposed to risk your life just for the physical safety of American citizens
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

5. You’re supposed to risk your life for American ideals as well.
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

6. This shouldn't be a left-right issue. Ronald Reagan, who believed that America was the exceptional nation,
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

7. the “Shining City on a Hill,” asked himself during his farewell address from the Oval Office how that Shining City fared, answering:
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

8. "After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

9. “And she's still a beacon; still a magnet for all who must have freedom,
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

10. “for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness toward home."
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

11. Millions of pilgrims are hurtling through the darkness, but it’s Germany that has recently been the beacon standing strong and true,
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

12. welcoming them home, not America.
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

13. If we want to be the kind of nation that others will follow,
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

14. the kind of nation capable of forging strong links in the Muslim world against extremism,
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

15. then we have to behave like that kind of nation. I get that people are scared.
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

16. But it's only during frightening times when you get to find out if your country really deserves to call itself the 'home of the brave.'
— Phil Klay (@PhilKlay) November 19, 2015

Marine Veteran Writes Moving Criticism of House Vote on Syrian Refugees

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