Bodies on the shore?

The images of bodies of Syrian refugees washing up on Turkey's Aegean coast have become etched in people's hearts and minds. Seeking refuge from war at home cannot be considered a voluntary trip that might be regulated with visa regulations of any sort. Embracing refugees must be a humanitarian obligation of not only the border countries of the conflict area, but of the entire human community, particularly for those who stirred up the problem and sowed the seeds of the war in the first place.

Young boys, girls, older men and women? Toddlers? What were their crime? Why were they compelled to sacrifice their life in the cold waters of the Aegean in these winter days in pursuit of safety, well-being and a bit of human rights and liberties? Were they Alawites? Or were they Sunnis? Were they Arab, Kurdish or Turkmen? Would it matter? They lost their lives in the cold waters of the Aegean while trying to escape war at home, as well as uncertainty in Turkey for a better life in Europe... Why did they not escape to "rich" Saudi Arabia? How many of the Syrians chose to travel to Gulf countries, particularly to Qatar, which so desires to see a transition to a Syria without Bashar al-Assad? What's the difference between Lebanon and Jordan and the other countries of the region? Just proximity? 

Seeking a secure life outside the region and the sectarian obsessions perhaps explains why hundreds of thousands of Syrians have chosen to escape to Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and through those three countries, to third countries in the West. There are no clear figures, but around 850,000 are said to have fled to Europe via Turkey within the last year. The number of those in Turkey exceeded 2.2 million according to Turkish statistics, but only a small section of those...