But since more than 70 percent are adult males, one should ask, why such a gender breakdown? Why so few children compared to adults (only about 15 percent are children)?

This is the question policymakers need to be asking before they commit the dangerous error of emoting a policy position, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel appears to have done by promising that Germany will take upwards of 800,000 people—no matter what that means for southern and central Europe, which are the gateways to the continent.

After all, this catastrophe roiling Europe was caused by three things: 1) the years of liberal European Union policy on immigration; 2) Europe’s general lack of preparedness to deal with a frightening but steady influx that turned into a wave in the last couple of months; and 3) German insistence that all of Europe should be helping it do what so far only the German government’s conscience appears to be demanding. (Okay, and fecklessness regarding the violence consuming much of the Middle East is a cause, but that should be the subject of a different essay.)