Can you be open to refugees while still being concerned about national security? If you’re a rational person you can.

Gen. Philip Breedlove, the allied commander for NATO’s European operations appeared before a congressional committee in Washington recently and expressed his concern that the refugee crisis is being exploited by those who wish to do us harm.

He pointed out that even Russia and the Assad regime are using this crisis for their own ends, and that they are deliberately weaponizing migration in an attempt to overwhelm European structures and break European resolve.

This man is worth listening to because I’m sure he’s privy to more information than many of us will ever know about.

But that doesn’t seem to matter to cheerleaders for more refugees because they’ll just look at any questioning of security threats as an affront.

Whether it’s Trudeau here in Canada, Obama in the U.S. or enthusiastic refugee backers in Europe, our concerns are dismissed with a pat on the head as we’re told not to worry.

It’s understood that for the most part, we’re talking about people fleeing war while Europe is also dealing with a massive influx of economic migrants looking for a better life using the refugee crisis as a front but even if very few will be terrorists or war criminals, it doesn’t take very many to do serious harm, does it?

Our political leaders have a responsibility to protect our country and its citizens from harm. And if we really care about legitimate refugees, don’t we have a responsibility to ensure that their plight isn’t being exploited by the very people that they’re fleeing?