I was up far too late last night reading George Packer’s “Betrayed,” his lengthy piece in a recent New Yorker about the treatment of the Iraqis who most eagerly assisted the United States when we invaded Iraq. The piece is alternately depressing and angering. That anybody could be so foolish — that an entire nation could be so foolish — in squandering the dedication of our most important, strident supporters boggles the mind. The magnitude of what we’ve done weighed heavily on me by the time I finished the article. What we’ve done to Iraq — to Iraqis — is shameful. Iraqi men who have dedicated the past four years of their lives to aiding the United States are completely abandoned once their cover is blown. It’s a death sentence. If we really wanted to help Iraqis, we’d stop barring them from seeking aslyum the United States; we “have added moral shame to humiliation,” to quote President Ford, but barring them access. Does our country collectively hate ay-rabs more than we claim to love Iraqis?
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This country is in for a generation or more of extreme hatred of it by just such people as you describe, along with all their brethren.
How anyone could think this is a process that brings democracy and peace to anyone is beyond me. Every day is a head scratching moment, realizing how screwed we are.
I’m truly stunned that we have so effectively and completely converted the Iraqis most cooperative, most knowledgeable, most eager to aid the United States into people who at best dislike us very much. And that’s the people who love us! What must the average Iraqi think of us by now?
It’s lunacy, incompetence, and stupidity all rolled into one.
Packer was interviewed by Terri Gross on Fresh Air the other day. It is heartbreaking. But you have to remember whose foolishness this is – the same U.S. government employees that are administering the war in theater. Bureaucrats tasked with servicing the U.S. military. They waste lives like they waste paper, money, and time.
But I’ve been thinking about this, and how to fix it. The solution was close to home. My family sponsored a Czech family in the aftermath of the closing of the Iron Curtain. My dad was in service and stationed nearby. He met a young couple that had managed to escape to the west.
My Dad convinced my Grandad and Uncle to vouch for them and agree to support them, that satisfied the INS, and the Czech family was allowed to immigrate. My Uncle got the guy a job at his manufacturing company and the family briefly stayed in the guest room. Babies soon followed and within a few years the entire family was integrated into the American life.
The answer for these Iraqis is to have solid Americans sponsor them. If they wait for a bunch of on-site bureaucrats to figure out how to do the right thing they will be dead. This is a job for all Americans, it is the least we can do.
What I have found thus far:
http://www.churchworldservice.org/Immigration/sponsor-resources.html#me
lunpetidity