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George W. Bush keeps talking about America’s
moral responsibility to Iraqis. So why is he slamming America’s door
in their faces? There’s an ugly story about the war that the
Bush administration hopes you and I don’t notice. It’s that
their incompetence and arrogance have made the Iraqi people’s lives a
succession of miseries. There are the daily killings and maimings, of
course — a gruesome reality that, since the start of Bush’s
highly touted surge strategy, has spread throughout the country. But let’s look at the undead. Unemployment is
rampant. Even in the capital city of Baghdad, electricity is at best an
occasional luxury. Two of three Iraqis have no regular access to clean
water. Children are malnourished, with many dying from preventable
diseases. The country’s health-care system is near collapse.
Two-thirds of Iraqi children are not in school. Meanwhile, in a nation of 28 million people, 4
million have been forced to flee their homes by this raging civil war. Half
of these are homeless in their own land; the other half has fled Iraq. This is where the door-slamming comes in. Since the
war began four years ago, how many of these displaced civilians would you
guess the Bushites have allowed to seek refuge in our Land of the Free?
About 500. That’s it. Well, surely the compassionate conservatives in the
White House have made other arrangements for Iraq’s growing number of
war refugees. In fact, Bush sat on his hands while two of his wealthiest
war allies in the region — Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — also shut
their doors to their Iraqi neighbors.
To learn what America can and should do about
Iraq’s desperate refugees, contact the International Rescue Committee:
www.theirc.org.
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator,
columnist, and author.
This article appears in May 3-9, 2007.
