With the war on terrorism resulting in ISIS outspoken attack of countries like France and Kenya, terror has reached an all time high, and despite the fight that we’ve put up, when the Syrian refugees need us most, we, among others, back out of Middle Eastern affairs.

To make matters clear: Syrian refugees are not a band of terrorists. Texas Agriculture commissioner Sid Miller made the mistake of comparing the refugees to a horde of rattlesnakes on Twitter. “Can you tell me which of these rattlers won’t bite you? Sure some of them won’t, but tell me which ones so we can bring them into the house,” he said.

This mentality is toxic. We have a purpose in granting refugees sanctum, and it’s being undermined by this fear that we’re endangering ourselves by letting people in.

Governor Greg Abbott also seems to think that “American humanitarian compassion could be exploited.” Why would 15 million people want to risk their safety? If there is a terrorist among their ranks, we could be certain that the people actually seeking help would rat them out.

This fear of ISIS — this poison we present to ourselves — is keeping us from doing the job that we set out to do since 9-11. If we take one look at France and succumb to the fear that we’re the next country to be attacked by the next set of suicidal radical Islamists, then we’re giving ISIS just what they want. Not only do the Syrian refugees need us to get our act together, we need to get our act together so that we don’t give terrorists the joy of winning and having their way.

Furthermore, for all the selfish reasons, what good does it do us to keep Syrian refugees out? It doesn’t help the conscious, and the only reason we can do without getting frowns and winces from other countries is because every other country is doing it. For those of you that hate it for what it is, imagine the way that we take the Syrian crisis in like Donald Trump feels about Mexican immigrants: they’re all rapist and drug dealers, right?

We did this in World War I, in World War II, and we’re doing it, again. We need to pull ourselves out of this cycle of intervening in things if we aren’t prepared to do so. And when we do, we need to take responsibility for the things to come. We need to overcome this fear and welcome the refugees. It’s the justice the world owes them.