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Bush Opens Borders to Iraqi Refugees

February 14, 2007

Apparently it wasn't enough to open our southern borders with Mexico, we're now opening our borders to 7,000 more Iraqis who are displaced because of the ill-conceived, poorly-executed Iraq War.

The Bush administration agreed Wednesday to greatly expand the number of Iraqi refugees allowed into the country and to pay more to help Iraq's Arab neighbors cope with the human tide fleeing increasing violence and economic hardship in their country. The decision to allow about 7,000 Iraqis to come to the United States answers mounting political and diplomatic pressure on the administration to do more to remedy the consequences of a war it largely started. Only 202 Iraqis were allowed in last year.

The administration also said it will immediately contribute $18 million for a worldwide resettlement and relief program. The United Nations has asked for $60 million from nations around the world. Although the United Nations estimates that 3.8 million Iraqis have fled their homes since the war began nearly four years ago, the United States has allowed only about 600 to settle in the United States. The U.S. proposal also includes plans to offer special treatment for Iraqis still in their country whose cooperation with the U.S. puts them at risk. Expanding visa programs for those Iraqis would require legislation in Congress, State Department Undersecretary Paula J. Dobriansky said Wednesday.

Some 2 million Iraqis have left their country, and an additional 1.8 million are believed to have relocated inside Iraq. The refugee flow has increased sharply as sectarian violence has increased over the past year. The numbers have overwhelmed the hospitality of Arab neighbors such as Syria and Jordan. The United Nations says most of those who have been uprooted have no desire to come to the United States, and want to return to their homes in Iraq when fighting stops. But allies, U.N. diplomats and lawmakers of both parties have recently told the administration that the small number of Iraqis the U.S. has allowed in looks miserly.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a hearing last week that the United States could bring in 7,000 Iraqis this year _ exactly the number announced Wednesday. The move is a step in the right direction, considering the United States is a "chief cause" of the refugee problem, said Carolyn Saour, an Iraqi-American Christian living in Houston. Still, 7,000 "is severely low for the amount of damage that's been done over the years," she said.

This is one excellent reason why we should never have gone into Iraq in the first place: there are going to be millions of displaced refugees and there is going to be nowhere to put them. Saudi Arabia is absolutely terrified of the coming refugee problem, which is why it is building a giant wall along its border with Iraq.

This is just the beginning. The Iraq War is now a civil war, with increasing violence. The neighboring Arab countries are complaining loudly about the influx of refugees which put a terrible economic burden on the host countries. King Abdullah of Jordan already has a big refugee problem on his hands: he has huge camps full of Palestinian refugees. Most of these people just want to go back home, not relocate to a foreign country whose culture and language are absolutely alien to them. Look at England and France: they opened their doors to refugees from oppressive regimes and are now facing a cultural clash and civil unrest like they has never seen before.

But unless the Bush Administration gets its act together and implements the RealPolitik plan proposed by the Iraq Study Group, there isn't going to be a functioning Iraq for these people to return to anytime soon. Taking a few thousand refugees here and there and writing checks to the U.N. is like applying Neosporin to a serious gunshot wound. It's a nice gesture, but it isn't going to stop the patient from dying.

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