In the throes of national pride and the heat-of-war mentality, Americans tend to forget the real crisis and consequence of war for the innocent civilians of a war-torn Iraq – people whose livelihoods are open to fatal injury or attack at any time of day or night.
At the end of the war, American soldiers will return home from Iraq, and settle into the security of their government jobs and offices.
The average Iraqi citizen, however, will carry the psychological and emotional scars of this war throughout the rest of their lives. These people will be affected, now and forever, from forced evacuation to places they’ve never seen, away from their home country, culture and language.
To bring this into perspective, one in five Iraqi citizens has been displaced. In 2007, the total number of refugees was estimated to be around 5 million displaced persons.
Because of their refugee status, the majority of displaced Iraqi citizens have no legal privilege to work in their host country.
This creates an entirely new problem of poverty and prejudice and an increasingly limited list of options for people trying to save their lives by fleeing the war-zone.
Recently, the Iraqi government released a statement declaring that it cannot possibly accommodate the large numbers of returning displaced citizens. Therefore, an overwhelming majority of those refugees that do return end up becoming displaced once again.
Life for displaced Iraqi men, women and children in neighboring countries is rife with violence and victimization.
In Lebanon, Iraqis are forced to live in hiding to prevent arrest, incarceration or even deportation. Syria ended its “open-door” policy for Iraqi refugees in October of last year, and now imposes visa restrictions upon these displaced persons.
In 2007, the United States initiated a program to help 7,000 of the 5 million displaced Iraqis to find a permanent resettlement location.However, it only successfully resettled 1,608.
For 2008, the United States has promised to resettle 12,000 Iraqi refugees, but as of the end of January only 375 have been successfully resettled.
It is easy to ignore the crisis of millions of displaced Iraqi citizens because they are on the other side of the ocean, out of sight of the media and out of the minds of the American people. But this is an American war. A war based fundamentally on the ideologies of ending terrorism, creating democracy or whatever other hopeful cause the government wishes to project for Iraqi occupation.
And yet, what are we doing if not creating more terror in the world, more sources for suffering, poverty, violence and in the end, more terrorism?
Right now, as millions are displaced, dying and living in miserable poverty and abject prejudice because of this war, it is inhumane to let the victimization and suffering caused by this war to continue any longer.
It is up to those of us who wish our country to maintain accountability and to truly promote human rights to reverse the tide of this unimaginable crisis. If you want to learn more visit www.refugeesinternational.org.

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