Illustration: Peter C.Espina/GT

As Europe pulls a long face amid a tidal wave of refugees, it is high time for its cross-ocean ally, the US, to abandon its "wait-and-see" attitude and take concrete actions to solve the acute crisis.

A recent UN report said that more than 300,000 refugees, 80 percent of them from Syria, entered Europe through the Mediterranean from January to August, exceeding the number of last year as a whole.

The total number of refugees fleeing to Europe, some of whom also came from Iraq, Yemen, Libya and Egypt, is estimated to have reached 1 million.

Such a massive migration is not the result of isolated cases of stealing into other countries, but an outpouring of the humanitarian crises in some war-torn countries, where people's basic human rights are not guaranteed. And the US should mainly be blamed for the chaotic situation for starting the wars and destabilizing other countries through various means.

Take Iraq. In 2003, the US and Britain bypassed the UN Security Council and unilaterally launched military strikes against Iraq, claiming that the country hid weapons of mass destruction and supported terrorists. Their real motive was actually to topple the anti-US Saddam regime.

About 162,000 Iraqis lost their lives in the war and several million civilians fled to neighboring Jordan and Syria, contributing indirectly to today's refugee crisis in Europe.

Later, in 2010, the so-called Arab Spring uprisings engulfed Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Syria, causing political upheavals, economic depression and social unrest in these countries. Extremist groups such as the Islamic State also began to take root and have launched heinous attacks, causing a massive outflux of asylum seekers to Europe.

Facing the biggest refugee crisis since WWII, the EU is struggling to form a joint action plan, with its member countries divided in their responses to the migrants.

Germany has temporarily relaxed its border rules to receive thousands of migrants, while some East European countries, restrained by their financial limitations, still closed their doors to the migrants.

The US, which is mainly responsible for the crisis, showed no signs of planning to significantly increase its intake of refugees, despite its promise to provide $4 billion for refugee relief.

Many lessons can be drawn from the current refugee crisis in Europe, the most important of which is that Washington should reflect on its policy to impose "American democracy" on other countries, which has only led to turbulence, killing and displacement of civilians there.

While the US is not expected to drastically adjust its foreign policies overnight, right now it should honor its moral obligation and take concrete actions to help the EU solve the refugee crisis.

The author is a writer with the Xinhua News Agency. The article first appeared on Xinhua. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn