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Just one day's interest on the U.S. debt for this war would relieve the refugees' suffering.
One of the consequences of the Iraq War that has been under reported in the United States is the plight of refugees from the violence that has been raging for nearly four years since our invasion. One in eight Iraqis have now left their homes, with up to 50,000 people leaving each month. The United Nations' refugee agency, known as the UNHCR, recently announced that this is the largest long-term refugee movement in the world since the displacement of the Palestinians after the creation of Israel in 1948.
If you haven’t seen the brilliant David O. Russell film, Three Kings, starring George Clooney, or your haven’t seen it in while, now would be a good time. This action/adventure builds to a moral dilemma for the protagonists. Should they spend a fortune they’ve worked very hard to acquire to rescue a group of refugees?
This is the moral imperative we now face in Iraq, except that, relatively speaking, it won’t take a fortune to rescue the refugees. Just one day’s interest on the U.S.’s borrowing to finance the Iraq War would relieve much of the immediate suffering of the refugees created by that war.
I’ll explain the math in a minute, but first, some more about the refugees. The UNHCR has issued an urgent appeal for 60 million dollars in emergency aid for those fleeing the violence in Iraq. Many of these refugees, often including entire families and children, live in deplorable conditions. Two million Iraqi refugees live outside the country, while nearly that same number remain inside Iraq, politely referred to "displaced people." The total number refugees may grow to almost five million by the end of the year. Human rights and women’s organizations are alarmed over growing evidence that desperation is forcing some young women to turn to prostitution so that they and their families can survive.
Now for the details on the interest on the debt: U.S. expenditures for the Iraq War so far are estimated to be more than $356 billion. The entire national debt actually has increased six times that much during the war, so every penny spent on the war is being borrowed. The interest on the debt is just under five percent per year. That means we are paying interest on the war debt of nearly 18 billion dollars a year, or more precisely 50 million dollars in war debt interest each and every day.
50 million dollars, or one day’s worth of interest on what we’ve spent so far on the war, is nearly the amount the UNHCR says is needed to relieve the suffering of the millions of souls displaced by that war. A donation of that amount in America’s national interest.
Whether you think it is a just or unjust war, millions of people have been forced to flee their homes because of our invasion. If we truly want to show the world that we are worthy of the leadership role we claim in trying to make the world a better place, shouldn’t we make this small gesture to relieve some of the suffering this war has caused?
Please let your elected officials know how you feel about the plight of Iraqi refugees, and make a donation to any one of a number of international refugee organizations that are working to help Iraq’s refugees. Whether you favor surge or withdrawal, this should be a cause that transcends political divisiveness over the war. The amount that’s needed is equivalent to every person in the U.S. donating 17 cents each.
Click to donate. Click to send a message to Speaker Pelosi.
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Thank you for offering one small way to counter the devastating human effects of the war being waged in our names. It's easy to feel generous when your share is only 17 cents -- and just because I gave more than ten times that doesn't mean nine of you are off the hook. The UN Refugee Agency, to which this post links, lets you choose Iraq from a list of countries as the target of your donation.
---This is in response to the article “Exodus is largest since the creation of Israel” in the London ‘Telegraph’ on February 3, 2007, where they discussed Iraqi refugees.---
Arab refugees have been streaming out of Iraq over the last few years. This is a sad realization on how the war has effected the population. While the story of the Muslim refugees of Iraq is certainly compelling, the plight of the Jews of Iraq who were made refugees is also compelling and must also be acknowledged.
Prior to 1948, Iraqi society was one with a business community that was made up in large part by Jews—Jews that had lived in Iraq for over 2,600 years. However, after the establishment of Israel in 1948, Zionism became a capital crime and attacks and hatred toward the Jews mounted. Jewish property was expropriated; Jewish bank accounts were frozen; Jews were dismissed from public posts; businesses were shut; pensions were confiscated; trading permits were cancelled.
Jewish life and society in Mosul, Iraq of 1940, was not unlike the Jewish life and society of New York City of the same era. These were not poor people, these were Jews that owned business, buildings, commercial warehouses filled with merchandise, hospitals, synagogues, cars and homes. Over 100,000 Jews were displaced between 1949-1951, taking nothing with them. Jews wanting to leave could do so after having their citizenship
revoked. Another 20,000 were smuggled out through Iran. Iraq’s government issued multiple discriminatory decrees and perpetrated violations of human rights against the Jews through a series of laws that expanded on the confiscation of assets and property of Jews. Because of repressive measures against them, and fearing for their lives, Jews fled Iraq as refugees taking nothing with them.
On two separate occasions the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) ruled that Jews fleeing from Arab countries were ‘bona fide’ refugees who “fall within the mandate of (the UNHCR) office”. Yet, there was virtually no international response to the plight of close to 900,000 Jews who, since 1948, have been displaced from Arab countries such as Iraq.
Little has been heard about these Jewish refugees that resettled around the world, and there was never any compensation provided by the Arab governments that confiscated their possessions. We must remember, that as a matter of law and equity, no just, comprehensive Middle East peace can be reached without recognition of, and redress for, the uprooting, under Islamic regimes, of centuries-old Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa.
Shelomo Alfassa
Director, US Campaign
Justice for Jews from Arab Countries
www.justiceforjews.com
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