The Question Remains

It's apparent nothing will be done anytime soon with regards to the Iraq war, not pulling out, no phased withdraw. But instead of looking for ways to disengage in the least bad way because that's all there is, the status quo rambles on in perpetuity. A war sought and brought by the Bush administration by, I could say lied to the American people but conspiracy to defraud the United States of America will suffice. Now the US is shackled in a generational war. And one of the most unfortunate of these byproducts of the Iraq War is the refugee problem, which does get media attention, but does it have the attention of those in office?

The Iraq refugee crises boasts some quite impressive numbers, any Yankee imperialist would be proud of. According the the Iraqi Red Crescent, 2.5 million Iraqis under the age of 12 are refugees. 1.5 million refugees alone are in Syria. But most damning of these statistics and a broader one overall, one in five Iraqis is a refugee, either as an Internally Displaced Person, still within the borers of Iraq or otherwise. With one million dead Iraqis, what is being done? these numbers don't have much of an impact when reading them just imagine having one million dollars, or better yet imagine owing one million dollars...but humans instead.

The UNHCR for the year of 2008 asked for $261 million for Iraqi refugee programs. The US or you and I collectively spend about $ 275 million a day in Iraq. This should at least show some context if not where the bourgeoisie priorities are. But as a representative democracy we can change this right?

One Iraqi refugee I spoke with in Damascus was trying to seek asylum in the United States. In order to do this he needed to go back to Iraq and get certain documents, “I'm not going back no way, they'll kill me.”
I asked, “They actually expect you to go back to Iraq?”
“Thats what they expect but I'm not doing it, that's crazy”
He has been here in Damascus for six months looking for a job.

All too common is to see eight year old girls sitting on the stairs of overpasses of major streets in Damascus, that wait all day to sell some batteries, or tissues. I pass them late in the evening around midnight and they are still there asleep with their head propped up by their hand. This doesn't just apply to kids either there are plenty of adults that wait all day to sell anything. Mothers send their daughters into coffee shops begging for money. “Most of the Iraqis are here in Damascus.”

I see plenty of articles about refugees, but the golden question always remains, what to do about it. On April 16 – 18 in Washington DC there will be an Iraq Action Day. Go to this and raise a stink. Let those in congress know that they need to clean up their mess, and it their mess, they voted for it, and they vote to fund it every year too. It might not be a bad idea to tie into the supplementary funding Bush is constantly asking for a bill that requires the US to fully fund Iraqi refugee programs as well. It's not too much money, and I've already shown what kind of expenditures this Administration is capable.

Maybe if you're not too busy you can put impeachment back on the table, if not for the war how about for the 5 million refugees, or the embarrassing response to hurricane Katrina, or illegal wiretapping, or caging voters, or stealing elections. The Iraqi refugees should never disappear from the international and American psyche. But in turn what must enter the American psyche is what to do about it. Let not news like Barack Obama's foreign policy advisor calling Hillary Rambo Clinton a monster I'm afraid we're all wasting our time with that tripe. There isn't much time to stick it to the Bush Administration, because when they're out, we'll all be biting our nails at what the next president will do, and how quickly it will happen.

Justin Smith is a freelance writer based in Beirut Lebanon. He is a Sacramento, CA native. He can be reached at justinsmiths [at] gmail.com