The Iraqi Refugee Crisis

This week the United Nations held a conference in Geneva to renew calls for assistance to the four million Iraqi refugees displaced by the war in Iraq. An American representative at the conference made vague promises of "strong support" for a coordinated international effort to help the refugees. Does this mean the Bush administration finally believes in multi-lateralism?

More likely, it is an excuse to dither. The US accepted about 200 Iraqi asylum seekers in 2006, and will take another 2,000 in 2007. Meanwhile, 50,000 Iraqis flee Iraq every month, according to the UN. There are about over a million Iraqi refugees in Syria and about a million more in Jordan alone.

The United States needs to do more. The moral case is clear. We invaded Iraq, and failed to provide security to its people. Remember the Pottery Barn doctrine enunciated by Colin Powell to President Bush before the invasion: "You break it. You own it." We own this problem, and the whole world is watching us try to walk away from it.

But the US should also do more for Iraq's refugees because it is in our own best interest. Like it or not, our economy and our security are tied to the Middle East. And this tidal wave of refugees spilling out of Iraq is probably one of the biggest threats to the region. Think of all the instability created by the Palestinian refugee crises in 1948 and 1967. If Iraq's refugees become a permanent underclass like the Palestinians, they will be a ready pool of recruits for for radical causes and sectarian conflicts. With a pre-emptive policy of large scale asylum (for appropriate candidates) and massive humanitarian assistance, we could prevent that from happening at a fraction of the what the war is costing us. If not, watch as this war spreads.

--Andrew Lee Butters/Damascus