Frank Rich Examines the Most Overlooked War Disaster: The Fleeing Iraqis

[babylonsister]

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003590933

Frank Rich Examines the Most Overlooked War Disaster: The Fleeing Iraqis

By E&P Staff

Published: May 26, 2007 9:30 PM ET

NEW YORK In his Sunday column for The New York Times, Frank Rich explores the oft-neglected aspect of the conflict in Iraqi that actually represents one of its greatest tragedies: the flight of Iraqis from that country and the humanitarian crisis that remains.

Here is an excerpt. The full column can be found behind the pay wall at www.nytimes.com.
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Iraqis are clamoring to get out of Iraq. Two million have fled so far and nearly two million more have been displaced within the country. (That’s a total of some 15 percent of the population.) Save the Children reported this month that Iraq’s child-survival rate is falling faster than any other nation’s. One Iraqi in eight is killed by illness or violence by the age of 5. Yet for all the words President Bush has lavished on Darfur and AIDS in Africa, there has been a deadly silence from him about what’s happening in the country he gave “God’s gift of freedom.”

It’s easy to see why. To admit that Iraqis are voting with their feet is to concede that American policy is in ruins. A “secure” Iraq is a mirage, and, worse, those who can afford to leave are the very professionals who might have helped build one. Thus the president says nothing about Iraq’s humanitarian crisis, the worst in the Middle East since 1948, much as he tried to hide the American death toll in Iraq by keeping the troops’ coffins off-camera and staying away from military funerals.

But his silence about Iraq’s mass exodus is not merely another instance of deceptive White House P.R.; it’s part of a policy with a huge human cost. The easiest way to keep the Iraqi plight out of sight, after all, is to prevent Iraqis from coming to America. And so we do, except for stray Shiites needed to remind us of purple fingers at State of the Union time or to frame the president in Rose Garden photo ops.

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[dave_p]

1. "We have fulfilled our obligation"

"Our obligation was to give them new institutions and provide security. We have fulfilled that obligation" - John Bolton

Yeah, mission accomplished! I hope we never hear such neocon crap from DUers.

I guess 45 million American refugees would be a measure of BushCo having "provided security" too. Perhaps they could call it "Helping America resettle".

[malaise]

2. Who cares

Teh war is going beautifully. Who cares if millions of brown people's lives are shattered? Bush and Cheney will get their oil. :sarcasm: