U.S. accused of ignoring crisis for 4.5 million displaced Iraqis

[rodeodance]

Source: McClatchy Newspapers



U.S. accused of ignoring crisis for 4.5 million displaced Iraqis

Hannah Allam | McClatchy Newspapers
last updated: November 13, 2007 07:28:29 PM

CAIRO, Egypt — The U.S. government is "unforgivably slow" in resettling Iraqi refugees and has failed to coordinate with its Arab allies to address the suffering of an estimated 4.5 million displaced Iraqis, according to a report released Tuesday by a leading Washington-based refugee advocacy group.

Nearly five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration has made little effort to speed up relief for a population that's growing more vulnerable by the day, Refugees International concluded after its most recent trip to Iraqi refugee communities in the Middle East. The group's advocates said the White House appeared oblivious to the magnitude of the war's humanitarian disaster.

"The first reason for this is the lack of political will," said Kristele Younes, a co-author of the Refugees International report. "Until very recently, the Bush administration never even acknowledged the humanitarian crisis because they were concerned that it would be interpreted as acknowledging failure in Iraq. And President Bush still has yet to acknowledge that there are now almost 5 million Iraqis who've had to leave their homes."

The report is critical of the United States' inability to make good on its resettlement promises. Despite talk of allowing 7,000 Iraqi refugees into the U.S. this year, only 1,608 had been admitted by the end of September and another 450 entered in October.

By comparison, the U.S. government has resettled nearly three times that many Iranians this year — 5,481 — even though refugees from Iran share the same stories of religious and political persecution as their Iraqi neighbors, Younes said. Arguments that Iraqi refugees could pose a security risk also would apply to Iranians, she added. All refugees admitted to the United States for resettlement undergo security screenings.


Read more: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/v-print/story/21470.html

[...of J.Temperance]

1. To be honest

W should allow most if not ALL of those 4.5 million Iraqi's immigration into the United States....afterall W's primarily responsible for these individuals being in the dire mess that they find themselves in.

So W should allow the 4.5 million Iraqi's asylum into the United States....W should do the Christian thing, he's a Christian afterall....oh hold on....wait a minute....scratch that bit about him being a Christian, we know he's NO Christian....

[rodeodance]

2. that might just wake up some??

[...of J.Temperance]

3. It would

Be the so-called Christian thing to do, one would think.

The W Administration and the W Fan Cult, repeatedly keep saying that "we" can't leave Iraq, because "we" broke it, now "we" have to remain to fix it.

Well W helped break these 4.5 million Iraqi's lives as well, so therefore, W should be willing to help fix their lives.

Would it wake up some? Dunno, some of them appear to be so astonishingly deaf and blind, it's a debatable point.


On Edit: Added comment

[ClintonTyree]

4. But....but....

a few thousand refugees have trickled back into the "safe" streets of Iraq. The surge has been an astounding success. At least that's what's being reported on the MSM. All is well. Y'all come on back to Baghdad, it's as safe as can be.

Until the soldiers leave, anyway. And they HAVE to leave soon because Bush has run out of bodies to send there. What happens to the "safe" streets of Baghdad after that? I shudder to think. :scared:

[OneBlueSky]

5. if what the U.S. has done to that country -- . . .

tens of thousands of deaths, hundreds of thousands of horrific injuries, millions of refugees, a destroyed infrastructure, a DU contaminated countryside, etc. -- doesn't qualify as both an immense war crime and a crime against humanity of historic proportions, I don't know what possibly could . . .

some day someone is going to have to answer for these atrocities, and the first someones on the list are George W. Bush and Dick Cheney . . .

[bdamomma]

18. oh, I am hoping for that day when another country's government

will haul their a$$es in for what they did to the Iraqi people.

[tanyev]

6. The Bush administration is just as interested in the displaced people of Iraq

as they are in the displaced people of NOLA.

[happygoluckytoyou]

7. TODAYS JOKE

2001..... Dick Cheney: Dubya, if we attack Iraq we will need to kill 1 million Iraqi, and a camel
2001..... Dubya: A camel, Uncle Dick? Why a camel?
2001..... Dick Cheney: See.......I told you nobody would care about 1 million Iraqi

[peacetalksforall]

8. This U.S. regime does not give a darn about our children or soldiers - who

is crazy enough to think they give a darn about Iraqis?

[redqueen]

9. Accused of?

Gotta love spin.

[Barrett808]

10. k & r

[Solly Mack]

11. Criminal

like everything else America has done in Iraq

[Supersedeas]

12. when i comes to ignoring embarrassing Bush crisises, the Media are willing accomplices

[Doctor_J]

13. We could send them some spare Katrina trailers

then they could die of poisoning AND malnutrition.

[balantz]

14. The children in Iraq

continue to suffer horrors and neglect because of this murderous administration!

[bdamomma]

19. we are causing a humanitarian crisis.

and those young girls are being plunged into prostitution too, and for what for this bastard who is still sitting in the WH, why is he still there huh? why?????????

[onager]

15. I'm in Egypt. Iraqis are rapidly wearing out their welcome.

Egypt is hosting several thousand Iraqi refugees, with not much happiness on either side. I've heard complaints about it from my Egyptian co-workers.

My favorite complaint from the Iraqis, who generally seem to be from the upper or upper-middle classes: "The Egyptians are lazy, stupid people. And they're taking all our money!"

Well, if they're taking all your money, Einstein, I guess they aren't really that "stupid," now are they?

Back in August, the L.A. TIMES ran an article about the Iraqis in Egypt with that comment. It's an interesting read if you can still find it. I read it while waiting to come back to Egypt.

Some other comments in the article:

One Iraqi won't let his kids play with Egyptians because he doesn't want them to pick up "that annoying accent."

But my absolute favorite: "I can't figure out their religion. Their women wear the hijab (headscarf), but their clothes are tight all the way down."

(He's pretty much right about that. The fashions of young Egyptian women also drive the native religious crackpots even crazier than they already are. I nearly get run over, easy enough to do in Egypt anyway, every time I go walking around the university with my head swiveling in all directions.)

This wowser added that he wouldn't even let his sisters-in-law go out alone in public, for fear they will be "corrupted."

I say his sisters-in-law should beat him severely, tie him to a chair, put on some skin-tight jeans and go out for a stroll. But I'm just a grumpy atheist.

[johnp]

16. The U.S. Military is over there to drink their blood and take their oil, not help them

Duh, as if helping them was something we were interested in. You don't help people by killing them.

[Felix Mala]

17. They are suffering as refugees, so we won't be suffering over here...

We salute you wandering patriots. We hope you will enjoy your freedom.

[Demeter]

20. Ignoring? Would That That Were the Only Crime the US Perpetrated Against Them

These Iraqis are displaced BECAUSE the traitors Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld destroyed their entire country!

[Javaman]

21. Ignore nothing, moron* knows fully well about them, but chooses to do nothing.

big difference.

[Supersedeas]

22. I'm sure that this is atop of Condi's agenda -- she talks about it all the time - not

The State Dept.'s dirty little Iraqi secret.

[Lilith Velkor]

23. US responds: "Huh? What crisis?"