Fleeing Democracy in Iraq
How can you rebuild a country into a stable, fully functioning democratic nation when it’s professional and educated class is fleeing it because it is too insecure and dangerous to continue living there?
The short answer is that you can not.
There has been a tremendous exodus of Iraqis from Iraq since late 2003. Estimates are that over 2,000,000 Iraqis have migrated from the county since 2003 and the pace of departures is accelerating. In addition, to the people leaving the country over 1,900,000 have felt compelled to flee their homes and to relocate within Iraq. This is largely due to ethic cleansing of areas by roving death squads and from the overall danger of living in a war zone.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) says there has been an “abject denial” around the world of the humanitarian impact of invading Iraq. For many Iraqis their lives have been destroyed without much hope of recovery.
The loss of professional citizens, doctors, lawyers, engineers, business owners, professors, teachers, nurses, skilled craftsmen, has been disastrous. These are the skilled people any nation needs in order to function properly. As security conditions within Iraq continue to deteriorate the brain and professional drain continues.
Iraqis with any financial means at all are leaving daily, many feeing into neighboring Syria and Jordan. Syria is reported to so far have taken in as many as 1.2 million refugees. Their ability to provide housing, health care, jobs, and even food is being stretched to their limit. Jordan is in a very similar situation having accepted about 800,000 refugees.
The UN states that the challenge of caring for these millions of displaced people has been largely ignored by the world community. For example, the United States, which started this disastrous mess, has so very generously taken in only a few hundred refugees although it recently said it would increase it’s quota to all of 7,000.
What hath George W. Bush and his neo con dreamers created? A democracy that almost immediately becomes a failed state serves no ones interest. And a government that can not serve the interests of it’s citizens is indeed a failed state.
Governments in the Mid East fear the spill over effect that turmoil in Iraq may well bring to their own countries. Governments like Jordan and Syria are already reeling under the burden of trying to cope with a flood of refugees. They are being forced to reduce the number of Iraqis that they will allow to enter. What happens to those who are refused entry?
The President of the United States and the US State Department refuse to address the refugee issue. With a failed government in Iraq and a failed government in Washington, D.C. the immediate future for those displaced by the Iraq War appears to be dismal.
And why do you think that President Bush, stubborn man that he is, has refused to recognize the refugee problem? A good guess is that to recognize the extent of the refugee problem caused by his policies would bring further attention to how badly his Iraq War and Middle East policies have failed.
Bush still believes that history will record him as a man of vision who transformed the Mid East into a showcase for democracy. The millions of Iraqi refugees fleeing the George W. Bush democracy in Iraq likely have a far different opinion.
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[...] How can a stable nation be created when much needed professional people have to run for their lives, leaving the county they love to become refugees? What hope is there for a democracy when the best, brightest, most educated, and most needed citizens have to flee their country for fear that they and their families will be murdered? [...]
[...] Almost 2,000,000 Iraqis have fled Iraq, the country they love, to become refugees. Another estimated 1,900,000 have become refugees in their own land, fleeing ethnic cleansing by death squads who wear army or police uniforms. To under score the security challenge in Iraq many of the death squad members are though to be in the army or police. [...]
[...] I have previously written about how impossible it will be to rebuild Iraq when so many of the professional and business class of citizens are leaving. These are the type of people needed to build any strong nation. Without them you will have only a failed state. [...]