Saturday, January 20, 2007

The Human Exodus from Iraq

A wave of Iraqis seeking to leave the country has been mounting in the last two months. It is estimated that almost 700,000 Iraqis are now in Jordan and another 1,400,000 are in Syria. They are being joined by 2,000 to 3,000 persons per day. For the most part, the Kurds, the Shia, and the Sunnis of Anbar Province have stayed put. Those seeking to leave have been Sunni Muslims from Baghdad and Arab Christians from across the country.

The exodus has been ignited by the increasing violence, a pervasive view that the Iraqi government will not do anything to stem the violence, and the US Congressional election results. It is impossible to know for certain which of these factors is the most important, but given that the first two were in place before November, it seems likely that the Democrat electoral victory has sent a strong signal that the US is losing its resolve and may well pull out as it did in Vietnam, leaving those who supported it at the mercy of the “victors.” Democrats told the country in the mid-1970s that there would be no “domino effect.” 2,000,000 people subsequently perished in Cambodia and tens of thousands in Vietnam. Iraqi Christians and Sunni Muslims believe the same will happen this time, and they are registering that belief with their feet.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I agree, these are telling statistics.

It seems the Iraq government was not meant to work. Iraq is a fractioned country. Approximately 80% Shia, 10% Sunni, and 10% Kurd I believe. This circumstance is the dominating factor in Iraq. The Kurds are not Arab and want there own country. The Shias do not want to share with others. I do not blame them for feeling this way. But it is probably in the country’s best interest to share. The Sunnis are upset because they lost what economic and political power they had. Again, this is why a unified Iraq is an Ideology never to be realized. We must stop this idea that we can impose our worldview on others.

I find it interesting that people are now blaming the Democrats for Bush’s continual policy failure. It would be comical if it weren’t so sad.

Thanks for those statistics. The great thing about statistics is they tend to seperate reality from fiction.