Dem. Now! Today: “Exodus: Where Will Iraq Go Next?"

[babylonsister]

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/3/31/exodus_where_will_iraq_go_next

“Exodus: Where Will Iraq Go Next?" Deborah Campbell on the Iraq Refugee Crisis


Refugees International estimates that up to 5 million Iraqis have been displaced since 2003. That’s one in five Iraqis who have had to flee their homes since the US led invasion of their country. Two and a half million Iraqis have been internally displaced and an equal number have managed to leave the country, to Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, the Gulf States, and most of all, Syria, which hosts 1.5 million Iraqis.

Iraqi Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered the Mahdi Army to withdraw its fighters from the streets today after six days of battling US-supported Iraqi military forces. At least 270 people have reportedly died in the fighting since the Maliki government launched its crackdown on rival Shia paramilitaries.

While all the attention is fixed on the political actors vying for control of the oil-rich city of Basra, we take a step back and look at the human cost of the war and the many armed groups its created.

Refugees International estimates that up to 5 million Iraqis have been displaced since 2003. That’s one in five Iraqis who have had to flee their homes since the US led invasion of their country. Two and a half million Iraqis have been internally displaced and an equal number have managed to leave the country, to Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, the Gulf States, and most of all, Syria, which hosts 1.5 million Iraqis. But these countries are all raising concerns over the influx of Iraqis and last October Syria closed its borders.

Independent journalist and author Deborah Campbell spent two months embedded with Iraqi refugees in Syria last year, just as the borders were closing. She writes about the people she met in an article published in the latest issue of Harpers Magazine. Its called “Exodus: Where will Iraq go Next?”

[babylonsister]

1. Yea, I'm talking to myself, but see this if you can.

I didn't know Iraq had the most educated populace in the Middle East until we got there and ruined lives.

I also didn't know that an Iraqi citizen wouldn't be allowed into this country if it's determined they've provided materiel support to the enemy. That includes a woman who was kidnapped, raped, and forced to cook for the enemy (whomever that might be at the time the rules were made).
If anyone says they aren't proud of their country, I'd like to join them.