Young Syrian refugees from Aleppo sit with their mother on the steps of a bank in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday, September 18. The United Nations refugee agency says the number of Syrians who have fled their war-ravaged country has risen to more than 2 million.
Editor's note: Megan Bradley is a fellow in Foreign Policy at the Brookings Institution, where she works with the Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement. Her work addresses the rights and well-being of internally displaced persons and refugees. Her research also examines issues of transitional justice and accountability for human rights violations. She is the author of Refugee Repatriation: Justice, Responsibility and Redress (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
(CNN) -- Last month at Zaatari, the second-largest refugee camp in the world, I met an accountant who carried his 6-day-old baby across the Jordanian border from Syria, and a mother who cannot find her 20-year-old son -- and knows all too well what has likely happened to him. I saw parents too frightened to let their children out of their sight, even to go to school.
And while visiting Syrian refugees recovering in a hospital in Amman, Jordan from some of the violence that perhaps foreshadowed the August 21 chemical attacks on Syrian citizens, I spoke with a woman whose daughter died in her arms. These refugees' stories, interspersed with images of white-shrouded children lying dead -- poisoned in the Damascus suburbs -- have stayed fresh in my mind.
The debates in the press over the past three weeks imply that whether or not the United States and its allies apply "lethal force" in Syria is the defining question of this crisis. Whether the United States intervenes militarily is a hugely important question -- politically, strategically, legally and morally. But it is not the only one. For the civilians bearing the staggering weight of this war, it is not even the most pressing one.
The war has raised a huge range of unanswered questions and challenges for humanitarian actors that will persist long after any "symbolic" or even intensive military operation. These are imperative to Syrians' survival and the region's long-term stability and must not be crowded out as politicians and pundits wrangle over the use of force.
First and foremost is the question of how to keep borders open for refugees. More than 2 million Syrian refugees have now fled their country. The hospitality of Syria's neighboring states towards these refugees has been breathtaking.
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For example, more than one in four people in Lebanon today are Syrian, representing a level of generosity toward refugees that has never been matched by any Western state. Yet -- particularly in Lebanon and Jordan -- the refugee crisis has resulted in higher rents, reduced wages, overstretched social services, and increased pressure on already limited water supplies. All this has ratcheted up local tensions, and increased pressure on governments to limit arrivals.
While the Jordanian border remains officially open, over the summer UN officials reported "artificially low" arrivals, suggesting that would-be refugees may be encountering obstacles to their escape. Hurdles are also emerging for Syrians wishing to cross the Lebanese border. As the crisis escalates, redoubled international support is needed to ensure Syria's neighbors can accept new arrivals. This support must benefit not only the refugees but also the communities that are hosting them.
A second, related question is how to get Syrian refugee children into school. Last month -- it really was a hellish month -- marked what the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees called a "shameful milestone": The number of Syrian refugee children reached 1 million. Many of these children are not in school (by some estimates, 75% of children in Zaatari are not in school) and have already missed months if not years of schooling inside Syria before fleeing abroad.
Some kids are not attending school because they are working to support their families; other refugee children living in towns and cities lack the money to get to school, or are afraid of harassment. As bombs drop, getting kids in school may not seem that urgent, but the long-term impacts of a "lost generation" of Syrian children would be disastrous.
Deprived of educational opportunities, these children are at risk of future unemployment, social marginalization and frustration, potentially prompting them to turn to extremist causes. More attention and assistance is needed inside and outside the camps to overcome the barriers that are keeping refugee children out of class.
Equally important is the question of how to do more to assist the estimated 5.1 million Syrians who are displaced within their own country. Two million of these are minors, and many are at risk of physical violence and forced recruitment. The internally displaced are much more difficult for humanitarian groups to reach, and are out of the media spotlight, which is trained on refugee camps and settlements in neighboring states. But we need to be asking what new and creative ways can be found to improve protection and support for this population.
Last, but certainly not least, is the question of how to strengthen Syria's democratic opposition. This is not just a matter of access to weapons and military training, but the development of civil society organizations. Many Syrian refugees have already banded together to support others inside and outside Syria, including through the provision of medical assistance. We need to be asking what more can be done to strengthen and scale up such laudable initiatives.
Despite the devastation they are enduring, the Syrian refugees I met in Jordan are proud, industrious people. They have the capacity to recover and eventually rebuild their country -- but if Western countries are to effectively support them, we can't let the use of force become the only question on the agenda.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Megan Bradley.
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Two Syrian refugees sit on a street in Beirut on September 18.
Young Syrian refugees sit with their father as he prepares coffee to sell on a street in Beirut on September 18.
A Syrian refugee boy practices taekwondo at Zaatari refugee camp, near Mafraq, Jordan, on Tuesday, September 17.
A young Syrian girl washes a pan at the Atme refugee camp along the Turkish border on September 17.
Syrian refugee children watch Korean and Syrian taekwondo instructors during training at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan on September 17.
A Syrian woman carries her baby across the border into Turkey at the Cilvegozu border gate in Reyhanli, Hatay, Turkey, on Thursday, September 12.
A Syrian girl stands with her mother in a makeshift tent as they wait to enter an official refugee camp at the Oncupinar border gate in Kilis, Turkey, on September 12.
A Syrian girl eats a tomato at a temporary refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese town of al-Faour in the Bekaa valley on Wednesday, September 11.
A Syrian refugee girl drinks water from a hose near a temporary refugee camp in an eastern Lebanese town on Wednesday, September 11.
Lower Saxony's Commissioner for Migration and Participation Doris Schroeder-Koempf, along with German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich, center, greet the first of many Syrian refugees that have been granted temporary asylum in Germany on September 11.
A refugee boy sits on the ground at a temporary refugee camp in the eastern Lebanese town of Al-Faour, Bekaa, on September 11.
Syrian refugee children run near their tents at a temporary refugee camp near the Lebanese border with Syria on September 11.
Mustafa Abu Bekir, who was wounded while fighting with the Free Syrian Army, smiles as he meets relatives after crossing the Cilvegozu gate border in Turkey's Hatay province on Monday, September 9.
A Syrian refugee family of 26 people shares one room in the Eminonu district in Istanbul, Turkey, on September 9. The family fled Syria seven months ago.
Two Syrian refugee children sit outside a house where they currently live in Istanbul on September 9.
A refugee money-changer exchanges currency at the main market at the Zaatari refugee camp near the Jordanian city of Mafraq on Sunday, September 8.
A woman from an Alawite neighborhood in Syria holds her son on September 8 at the Pir Sultan Abdal foundation in Istanbul, which belongs to the Turkish Alawite community. Around 2000 Syrian Alawite refugees came to Istanbul in recent months to escape violence in North Syria.
A Syrian refugee displays second-hand shoes for sale at the main market at the Zaatari Refugee Camp close to the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the border with Syria, on September 8.
Syrian refugees arrive at the Pir Sultan Abdal foundation in Istanbul on September 8.
Syrian refugee workers fix cart wheels at their shop at the Zaatari Refugee Camp on September 8. Jordan has 515,000 registered Syrian refugees.
A Syrian boy sits beside his family's belongings on Friday, September 6, as they wait for a vehicle to pick them up after entering Turkey from the Turkish border gate of Cilvegozu.
Syrian refugees who failed to find shelters in a refugee camp eat and rest by the side of a road a few meters away from the Turkish-Syrian border on Thursday, September 5.
Syrian refugees arrive at the Turkish border gate of Cilvegozu on Thursday, September 5.
Syrian refugees gather in the village of Salkin after crossing the Syrian-Turkish border on September 5.
A young Syrian refugee boy sells canned tuna and other food items in the Zaatari Refugee Camp on September 4.
Children run past tents at a Syrian refugee camp in Yayladagi, Turkey, on September 3.
A child pulls a suitcase as Syrian refugees arrive at the Cilvegozu crossing gate of Reyhanli in Turkey's Hatay province on Saturday, August 31.
A family arrives from Syria at the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan on Friday, August 30.
A Syrian girl stands behind a fence at Bulgaria's shelter near Lyubimets on August 28. More than 3,100 immigrants -- half of them Syrians -- have crossed into Bulgaria from neighboring Turkey this year, doubling their numbers compared with 2012 and and causing Bulgaria's few temporary accommodation facilities to overflow.
A wounded Syrian child is treated at the Israeli Ziv hospital on Wednesday, August 28, in the northern town of Safed, Israel. About 140 wounded Syrians, who have been fighting across the border from Israel, have been treated in Israeli hospitals since the beginning of the Syrian Civil war.
A Syrian-Kurdish man carries a mattress at sunset at the Quru Gusik refugee camp, east of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, on Tuesday, August 27. More than 50,000 Syrian refugees have crossed into Iraq's Kurdish region in less than two weeks as authorities rush to house them in more permanent camps.
Syrian refugees listen to safety instructions at the Quru Gusik refugee camp on Saturday, August 24.
Syrian refugees at the Zaatari refugee camp on Thursday, July 18, near the Jordanian city of Mafraq, near the Jordanian-Syrian border.
The expanse of the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan as seen from an aerial view on July 18. The camp was opened on July 28, 2012, and is home to more than 130,000 refugees.
Syrian refugee children walk in the Bab al-Salam refugee camp in Syria's northern city of Azaz on Monday, July 15.
A boy walks with jugs of water on June 27 in a neighborhood in Beirut, Lebanon, with a high concentration of Syrian refugees. Since January, the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon has more than tripled.
Syrian refugees stand with their belongings on June 20, World Refugee Day, at Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.
A Syrian woman and child look out of a refugee camp window on June 20 in Alman, Lebanon, after fleeing their hometown in Idlib province, Syria.
A child, whose family fled violence in Syria, stands at the Arsal refugee camp on June 14 in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
A woman uses a fence at the Domiz refugee camp near Kohuk, Iraq, to dry laundry on May 29.
A boy carries a jug for water at the Maliber al-Salam refugee camp on April 28. The camp, located near the Turkish boarder, houses internally displaced Syrian families.
A makeshift refugee camp is seen near Syria's border with Turkey.
Row after row of temporary shelters fill the Maiber al-Salam refugee camp in Syria's Aleppo province, near the Turkish border on April 17.
Refugees fleeing the conflict in Syria arrive February 18 at the Jordanian border.
A Syrian girl stands at the entrance of a makeshift home near ruins in the ancient city of Serjilla in northwestern Syria on February 11. About half of Syria's refugees are children.
More than 400,000 people have fled Syria this year to countries including Lebanon, Jordan, Turkey, Iraq and Egypt. The Zaatari refugee camp is in Jordan, near the Syrian border.
A refugee collects apples and some bread February 10 at the Azaz refugee camp along the Syrian-Turkish border. Turkey has spent more than $600 million setting up 17 refugee camps, with more under construction.
Clothes dry at the Qah refugee camp near the Turkish border on January 31. Many Syrians are forced to flee with few or no belongings.
A man shows off his pet birds as new Syrian refugees arrive at the International Organization for Migration at the Zaatari refugee camp on January 30.
A refugee child gets a haircut at a makeshift barbershop at the Azaz refugee camp on February 19.
Syrian children gather around women washing in the Zaatari refugee camp on January 31.
A refugee visits a clinic with his child at the Azaz refugee camp on February 10.
Syrians put up tents at the Zaatari refugee camp on January 30.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees supplied tents in Al-Marj, in the eastern Lebanese Bekaa Valley. Some families have endured frigid weather in tent camps or struggle to pay for shelter.
A Syrian girl looks through the window of a bus where she has lived with her family for the past eight months at a refugee camp in Bab al-Salam on the Syria-Turkey border on February 28.
A Syrian jumps across the border between the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain and Ceylanpinar in Turkey's Sanliurfa province on November 10, 2012.
A Syrian refugee waits November 27, 2012, at a hairdresser's shop, where refugees can also receive training, inside the Oncupinar camp in Kilis, southern Turkey.
A Syrian boy attends school in the Turkish town of Kilis on December 17, 2012.
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