How many Iraqi "boat people" do you think there will be??

[Lipton64]

I'm guessing with a population of at least 25 million as of 2003, we'll see at least 2 million refugees from the upcoming civil war - most of whom will go to Iran, Syria, and Jordan at first.

But where will most of them go from there? That's right, just as there was a massive influx of Korean refugees following our war there and then there was a massive out-swell of Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Laotian "boat people" from the war in Vietnam - how many Iraqis do you think will end up settling in Canada and the United States?

And for that matter - how much will it cost us? If we accept most of them as refugees they will obviously come in poor and then we'll have to house them and put them on Welfare and government assistance and then put their kids through public schools.

This is a latent-effect of Mr. Bush's war that nobody talks about. It's going to raise our taxes a lot over the upcoming 10 years over the post-Bush Iraq civil war that is inevitable.

Can we absorb 2-5 million(or even more, yikes!) Iraqi refugees?? You know they'll come here because where else on the planet can they get the same social benefits?? Europe won't let them in except maybe a few in Britain since they helped start the war.

France, Germany, Italy, etc. will tell us look, you started this fucking war, now you pay for it with the refugees who you displaced by launching this illegal conflict. You broke it, you bought it.

This is going to be nasty but expect a massive influx of mainly Sunni and Iraqi-Christian and Iraqi Turkomen and other minorities in Iraq coming here escaping the Shia-dominated ethnic cleansing.....

[sam sarrha]

1. all of them if we dont stop that wet brain alcoholic drug addict fool in the white house

[Erika]

2. As Powell said, we broke it we own it.

I imagine we'll see about 750,000 Iraqis granted "asylum" here, and put on our welfare roles immediately.

[Lipton64]

4. Tell me about it, and yet the RethugliKKKans are always whining about people on the welfare rolls...

Of course they don't realize when their policies help outsource good paying jobs and cause massive lay-offs and thus divorces - many people go on public assistance because they either can't afford to move to an area with better jobs and/or they don't know what to do with their lives. I can just fucking imagine 750K people coming here with their hands out for welfare - and we better fucking pay up. This country has caused enough hardship and trouble for the 3rd world to last a lifetime. My grandparents were refugees from Europe - the result of the failed policies of this country to that continent and a violation of George Washington's demands to stay out of foreign affairs at all possible costs.

But with Arabs having a huge birth-rate I can just imagine seeing the public schools across America and the money that's going to cost. Probably at least another 20 billion a year thanks to Mr. Bush and the Cheney administration's warped policies.

At least 20 billion *a year*(200 billion over a decade not adjusted for inflation!!)
God only knows, perhaps 40 billion total when it's all said and done in health-care

Housing assistance - also into the billions. Welfare payments - into the billions.

The war is said to be projected to cost already well over a trillion bucks by the time it's over. I doubt that's even counting in the cost to absorb and "citizenize" these Iraqi and other Middle-Eastern refugees who come here and the healthcare and other social costs of the troops who Bush wounded and maimed over there for life.

This is truly going to be a very expensive war - perhaps costing up to 2-3 trillion when all is said and done assuming we include all the "refugee costs" into the war costs.

[TomInTib]

3. There are already over a million

I was reading about it over the weekend.

Maybe one point four.

And it is worsening at an exponential rate.

[Fire Walk With Me]

5. And how many will, ahem, resent America?

[demnan]

6. I don't know

Anyone left over there we haven't killed maimed or tortured?

[Cocoa]

7. we won't let them come here

they'll let the story of the Iraqi refugees be a foreign news story. If they let a significant number come here, then people here will really see it, which the Bushies don't want.

[soothsayer]

8. How many soldiers are coming home with Iraqi spouses?