An interventionist foreign policy when married to military muscle almost invariably gives birth to refugees. When Nazi Germany invaded and occupied much of continental Europe, including the Western Soviet Union, millions of Jews, Roma, and Slavs were uprooted and forcibly deported to concentration camps. Jews and Roma suffered mass extermination by roving killing squads of SS and local Nazi collaborators and in the gas chambers of Auschwitz-Birkenau and other death camps. Slavs were often worked to death and otherwise grossly mistreated in forced labor details and other places of persecution. Following World War II, the survivors of Nazi persecution were housed in displaced persons camps established by the United Nations, while various Western governments, including the United States, decided how many of those refugees they had liberated would be allowed to immigrate to the lands of their liberated. The process was neither pretty nor fast: Consider how thousands of Jewish Holocaust survivors were interned behind barbed wire on what was then British-occupied Cyprus in order to prevent their immigration to British-occupied Palestine, the future State of Israel. The same arduous and painful process of refugee resettlement occurred in the 1950s, when those fleeing Soviet rule were considered for immigration to Western democracies. The flight from tyranny and/or terror is never a walk in the park. It is more like a crawl in the mud in the dead of night while wearing sunglasses.
The invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of the genocidal Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein by U.S. and coalition forces have once again given birth to a refugee crisis of major and mounting proportions. The good news is that a monstrous man and his coterie of criminals have been deposed. The bad news is that the Iraqis freed from these autocrats are fleeing for their lives, even as President Bush has pronounced our “mission” in Iraq ”accomplished.” Apparently, no one has told millions of Iraqis that the removal of Saddam has transformed Mesopotamia to a New Eden where justice and oil flow like an everlasting stream.
On March 31, 2007, on a visit to Baghdad, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”), estimated that some 1.9 million people have been displaced within Iraq, and that another 2 million have sought refuge in neighboring states, including 1.2 million in Syria and 750,000 in Jordan. Statistics from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and other sources indicate that Syria is a country of 17.5 million people, and Jordan is a kingdom of about 5.9 million people. Therefore, the influx of Iraqis into these two countries represents a significant population increase in each of them. It should be remembered that neither Syria or Jordan are rich in oil deposits, and given that each already has an often violent history of intra-Arab tensions, between the ruling Alawite minority (and a dictatorial one at that) in Damascus and the rest of the Syrian population, and the divisions between the ruling Hashemite minority in Amman and the Palestinians who compose a majority of the kingdom’s population. The introduction into Syria and Jordan of large numbers of foreign Arab nationals may well spark new violence in the powder keg that is the Middle East. President Bush’s continued insistence that our invasion of Iraq would spread democracy and tolerance throughout the region may be likened to earlier reports of Mark Twain’s death: Both have been greatly exaggerated.
According to Andrew Harper, the senior operations manager of the UNHCR’s Iraq support unit, at least 100 people die each day in that country, and many more are wounded and displaced, all by sectarian violence and political terrorism. On February 2, 2007, Mr. Harper stated that if the Iraqi “situation continues to deteriorate, we’re going to see hundreds of thousands more displaced.” He added that the total number of displaced persons in Iraq “may rise to 2.3 to 2.7 million by the end of 2007. This is beyond the capacity of anyone to respond to.” UNHCR has also reported that the 15,000 Palestinians living in Iraq have been specifically targeted for “ongoing violence.” Perhaps the Arab world should look to its own treatment of Palestinians before casting rocks (and suicide bombers, and missiles) at Israel for its purported persecution of the Palestinian people.
In any event, given America’s intervention and continued military presence in Iraq, the issue arises as to the responsibility of the United States in this refugee crisis. What should the U.S. do to ameliorate, if not cure, the crisis? In a March 26, 2007, statement before the Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee of the House of Representatives, the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey, noted that since April 2003, “we have resettled 692 Iraqis in the United States.” By comparison, Sweden – a nation that had no role in the “coalition of the willing” that participated in the invasion of Iraq – accepted 9000 Iraqis for asylum in 2006! Perhaps in anticipation of the embarrassment of such a comparison, Ms. Sauerbrey noted in her March 2007 statement that a month earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice established an “Iraqi Refugee and Internally Displaced Task Force” to “focus and coordinate USG response and efforts” regarding the refugee crisis. That such a task force was formed almost five years after the invasion of Iraq is a sad comment on our government’s ability to anticipate and respond to population displacements caused by a war we planned and led, however noble our intentions in doing so.
Ms. Sauerbrey also told the House Subcommittee that the U.S. government has “already contributed 30 percent or $18 million to UNHCR’s FY2007 Iraq appeal of $60 million.” The real value of such a contribution pales in comparison to the decision of the Bush Administration to increase the American military presence in Iraq by approximately 30,000 troops, with all the attendant equipment and expenses. Clearly, the Bush Administration continues to believe that more force on the ground will lead to less internal dislocation and less migration to other countries by Iraqi civilians. Recent history, and the reports and projections of UNHCR, would seem to belie the Administration’s Pollyanna approach to the pacification of Iraq.
A UNHCR-organized conference on Iraqi refugees and displaced persons is scheduled for April 17-18, 2007, in Geneva, Switzerland. At that conference, the United States should announce a significant increase in its contributions to the UNHCR Iraq Appeal, in recognition of our special responsibility to the people we claim to have liberated from the trauma of a violent dictatorship. Furthermore, at the same conference, the Bush Administration should put the proverbial screws to wealthy Arab states like Saudi Arabia, our “ally” that in a recent Arab League summit referred to the U.S. military presence in Iraq as “illegal.” If , out of conviction or for appearance’s sake, the Saudis want us to hasten our withdrawal from Iraqi affairs, then they should be persuaded, pressured, or otherwise embarrassed into using their enormous financial resources to help in UNHCR’s efforts for Iraqi refugees. Our government needs to not-so-diplomatically remind the Sunni leadership of Saudi Arabia that an Iraq weakened by war and human displacement will only add to the influence of the militantly Shiite Iran in the Gulf region. If all we need to do cannot be accomplished in a two-day conference, then the United States, the world’s most powerful and influential nation, should demand that the Geneva conclave be continued until genuine progress is made on the refugee front. Our voice, our money, and our force of will should be applied and reapplied to this awful and dangerous state of affairs.
President Bush is neither a Hitler nor a Stalin. His motivation for directing the invasion of Iraq may have been well-intentioned, if based on inaccurate information and bad advice. Regardless of his intentions, however, the President’s policies on Iraq have placed us squarely on the road to Hell. His Administration’s handling of the occupation of Iraq was a disaster. He supports a government in Baghdad with ties to Shiite extremists and their private armies, but with no ability to prevent daily attacks by Sunni insurgents. The issue now is whether the President will act to stop the hemorrhaging of Iraq’s lifeblood, its people, and whether he will speak and spend at least as much on humanitarian action as he does on military might. If the Bush Administration does not act quickly to help stem the stress and tide of Iraqi refugees, then it may face another issue: Will it be necessary and appropriate for immigration reform legislation in the U.S. to include a special dispensation for the admission of tens, even hundreds of thousands of displaced Iraqi nationals into the United States? That is an issue that few in the Administration and Congress, and fewer Americans in general, ever want to confront.
The invasion of Iraq and the overthrow of the genocidal Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein by U.S. and coalition forces have once again given birth to a refugee crisis of major and mounting proportions. The good news is that a monstrous man and his coterie of criminals have been deposed. The bad news is that the Iraqis freed from these autocrats are fleeing for their lives, even as President Bush has pronounced our “mission” in Iraq ”accomplished.” Apparently, no one has told millions of Iraqis that the removal of Saddam has transformed Mesopotamia to a New Eden where justice and oil flow like an everlasting stream.
On March 31, 2007, on a visit to Baghdad, Antonio Guterres, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (“UNHCR”), estimated that some 1.9 million people have been displaced within Iraq, and that another 2 million have sought refuge in neighboring states, including 1.2 million in Syria and 750,000 in Jordan. Statistics from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and other sources indicate that Syria is a country of 17.5 million people, and Jordan is a kingdom of about 5.9 million people. Therefore, the influx of Iraqis into these two countries represents a significant population increase in each of them. It should be remembered that neither Syria or Jordan are rich in oil deposits, and given that each already has an often violent history of intra-Arab tensions, between the ruling Alawite minority (and a dictatorial one at that) in Damascus and the rest of the Syrian population, and the divisions between the ruling Hashemite minority in Amman and the Palestinians who compose a majority of the kingdom’s population. The introduction into Syria and Jordan of large numbers of foreign Arab nationals may well spark new violence in the powder keg that is the Middle East. President Bush’s continued insistence that our invasion of Iraq would spread democracy and tolerance throughout the region may be likened to earlier reports of Mark Twain’s death: Both have been greatly exaggerated.
According to Andrew Harper, the senior operations manager of the UNHCR’s Iraq support unit, at least 100 people die each day in that country, and many more are wounded and displaced, all by sectarian violence and political terrorism. On February 2, 2007, Mr. Harper stated that if the Iraqi “situation continues to deteriorate, we’re going to see hundreds of thousands more displaced.” He added that the total number of displaced persons in Iraq “may rise to 2.3 to 2.7 million by the end of 2007. This is beyond the capacity of anyone to respond to.” UNHCR has also reported that the 15,000 Palestinians living in Iraq have been specifically targeted for “ongoing violence.” Perhaps the Arab world should look to its own treatment of Palestinians before casting rocks (and suicide bombers, and missiles) at Israel for its purported persecution of the Palestinian people.
In any event, given America’s intervention and continued military presence in Iraq, the issue arises as to the responsibility of the United States in this refugee crisis. What should the U.S. do to ameliorate, if not cure, the crisis? In a March 26, 2007, statement before the Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee of the House of Representatives, the Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, Ellen Sauerbrey, noted that since April 2003, “we have resettled 692 Iraqis in the United States.” By comparison, Sweden – a nation that had no role in the “coalition of the willing” that participated in the invasion of Iraq – accepted 9000 Iraqis for asylum in 2006! Perhaps in anticipation of the embarrassment of such a comparison, Ms. Sauerbrey noted in her March 2007 statement that a month earlier, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice established an “Iraqi Refugee and Internally Displaced Task Force” to “focus and coordinate USG response and efforts” regarding the refugee crisis. That such a task force was formed almost five years after the invasion of Iraq is a sad comment on our government’s ability to anticipate and respond to population displacements caused by a war we planned and led, however noble our intentions in doing so.
Ms. Sauerbrey also told the House Subcommittee that the U.S. government has “already contributed 30 percent or $18 million to UNHCR’s FY2007 Iraq appeal of $60 million.” The real value of such a contribution pales in comparison to the decision of the Bush Administration to increase the American military presence in Iraq by approximately 30,000 troops, with all the attendant equipment and expenses. Clearly, the Bush Administration continues to believe that more force on the ground will lead to less internal dislocation and less migration to other countries by Iraqi civilians. Recent history, and the reports and projections of UNHCR, would seem to belie the Administration’s Pollyanna approach to the pacification of Iraq.
A UNHCR-organized conference on Iraqi refugees and displaced persons is scheduled for April 17-18, 2007, in Geneva, Switzerland. At that conference, the United States should announce a significant increase in its contributions to the UNHCR Iraq Appeal, in recognition of our special responsibility to the people we claim to have liberated from the trauma of a violent dictatorship. Furthermore, at the same conference, the Bush Administration should put the proverbial screws to wealthy Arab states like Saudi Arabia, our “ally” that in a recent Arab League summit referred to the U.S. military presence in Iraq as “illegal.” If , out of conviction or for appearance’s sake, the Saudis want us to hasten our withdrawal from Iraqi affairs, then they should be persuaded, pressured, or otherwise embarrassed into using their enormous financial resources to help in UNHCR’s efforts for Iraqi refugees. Our government needs to not-so-diplomatically remind the Sunni leadership of Saudi Arabia that an Iraq weakened by war and human displacement will only add to the influence of the militantly Shiite Iran in the Gulf region. If all we need to do cannot be accomplished in a two-day conference, then the United States, the world’s most powerful and influential nation, should demand that the Geneva conclave be continued until genuine progress is made on the refugee front. Our voice, our money, and our force of will should be applied and reapplied to this awful and dangerous state of affairs.
President Bush is neither a Hitler nor a Stalin. His motivation for directing the invasion of Iraq may have been well-intentioned, if based on inaccurate information and bad advice. Regardless of his intentions, however, the President’s policies on Iraq have placed us squarely on the road to Hell. His Administration’s handling of the occupation of Iraq was a disaster. He supports a government in Baghdad with ties to Shiite extremists and their private armies, but with no ability to prevent daily attacks by Sunni insurgents. The issue now is whether the President will act to stop the hemorrhaging of Iraq’s lifeblood, its people, and whether he will speak and spend at least as much on humanitarian action as he does on military might. If the Bush Administration does not act quickly to help stem the stress and tide of Iraqi refugees, then it may face another issue: Will it be necessary and appropriate for immigration reform legislation in the U.S. to include a special dispensation for the admission of tens, even hundreds of thousands of displaced Iraqi nationals into the United States? That is an issue that few in the Administration and Congress, and fewer Americans in general, ever want to confront.
