--- title: Marine Veteran Criticizes House Vote on Syrian Refugees description: "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.'" canonical: https://time.com/4122293/phil-klay-syrian-refugees-house-vote/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-11-20T17:37:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T12:48:36.839Z article:section: Politics og:title: Marine Veteran Writes Moving Criticism of House Vote on Syrian Refugees og:description: The Marine and novelist voiced his disapproval of the House vote on Twitter og:url: https://time.com/4122293/phil-klay-syrian-refugees-house-vote/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Marine Veteran Writes Moving Criticism of House Vote on Syrian Refugees twitter:description: The Marine and novelist voiced his disapproval of the House vote on Twitter twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Marine Veteran Writes Moving Criticism of House Vote on Syrian Refugees > Sponsored content. 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Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Nov 20, 2015 5:37 PM UTC  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Nov 20, 2015 5:37 PM UTC U.S. Marine and novelist Phil Klay took to Twitter on Thursday to voice his disapproval of the [House vote](http://time.com/4120912/house-republican-bill-syria-iraq-refugee/) 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: > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442423858089985) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442466577121283) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442494578294784) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442525628690432) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442555848671232) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442592204853250) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442627059535872) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442680356593664) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442708022173701) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442750040711168) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442790805209089) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442837366120448) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442869087637505) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442896791085056) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442933755478016) > [](https://twitter.com/PhilKlay/status/667442958711541760) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4122293/phil-klay-syrian-refugees-house-vote/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4122293/phil-klay-syrian-refugees-house-vote/"},"headline":"Marine Veteran Writes Moving Criticism of House Vote on Syrian Refugees","datePublished":"2015-11-20T17:37:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T12:48:36.839Z","description":"The Marine and novelist voiced his disapproval of the House vote on Twitter","url":"https://time.com/4122293/phil-klay-syrian-refugees-house-vote/","keywords":["Congress","Syrian refugees"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Julia Zorthian","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4122293/phil-klay-syrian-refugees-house-vote/","name":"Marine Veteran Writes Moving Criticism of House Vote on Syrian Refugees"}}]}] ```