US to Iraqis: Enjoy Your Democracy! Just Not Here...

in the "postwar planning" model of how the Iraq war would turn out after Hussein was removed from power (the elaborate fantasy involving cakewalks and rose petals) all of the remaining people would come together in a great orgy of democracy and forge a new government where everyone could get along. Obviously that hasn't happened, and the sectarian civil war has only gotten worse. Naturally, everyone who can leave is trying to in a mass exodus. But where should they go? Unless things change drastically, apparently not the US.

The official US policy has been that the refugee situation is temporary and that most of the estimated 1.5 million who have fled to Jordan, Syria, and elsewhere will eventually return to Iraq. But US and international officials now acknowledge that the instability in Iraq has made it too dangerous for many refugees, especially Iraqi Christians, to return any time soon.

Ellen Sauerbrey, assistant secretary of state for refugees and migration, said that while the Bush administration does not think resettlement is needed for most refugees, its policy could rapidly change.

"It is quite possible that we will in time decide that because of vulnerabilities of certain populations that resettlement is the right option," Sauerbrey said. While acknowledging that the administration originally set a quota of no more than 500 Iraqi refugees, she said the president has the legal authority to admit 20,000 additional refugees.
So as of right now, without any special dispensation there is a maximum of 500 refugees from Iraq allowed into the US each year. Not exactly overwhelming in a country whose population is over 25 million.

But the US is a big country, and we can certainly accomodate more, right? Possibly, the only problem is that for the people in charge, these refugees are a political liability.

Arthur E. "Gene" Dewey, who was President Bush's assistant secretary of state for refugee affairs until last year, said that "for political reasons the administration will discourage" the resettlement of Iraqi refugees in the United States "because of the psychological message it would send, that it is a losing cause."

But Dewey said a tipping point has been reached that is bound to change US policy because so many refugees are convinced that they will not be able to return to Iraq. That tipping point was further weighted by Wednesday's report by the Iraq Study Group that called for the eventual withdrawal of most US forces.

"I think there will increasingly be a moral obligation on the part of the United States" to allow resettlement by Iraqis here, Dewey said. "That is the price for intervention. Similar to Vietnam, that obligation is just going to have to be fulfilled."
That's putting it mildly. It's absolutely appalling that we would decide to just roll into their country, completely turn it upside down and leave people (possibly with relatives in the US) stranded with no safe place to live, just because it might make the home front a little more difficult for the president and the war planners.

We sure as hell didn't do enough to make sure the country wouldn't fall apart after the invasion, the least we can do is try and help some of the victims of this total lack of planning

web address: http://suicidegirls.com/news/all/19554/US-to-Iraqis-Enjoy-Your-Democracy--Just-Not-Here.../