Liberating Iraqis from their own land

According to the U.N. Refugee Agency, the number of Iraqis who have been driven from their homes since 2003 is about 4.2 million, 2.2 million of whom have fled Iraq (1.4 million into Syria, 750,000 in Jordan, and the rest in Iran, Turkey and other states). The other 2 million comprising this estimated figure are 'internally displaced,' concentrated in the central regions of Iraq.

This overshadows what is occurring in Darfur, but unlike that conflict, it is a direct result of U.S. military aggression, and so barely makes it onto the radar screen of the U.S. media.

This is similar to what occured in Palestine after 1948, and the occupied territories after 1967, with permanent refugee populations being created in neighboring states by military conquest. The situation is also, of course, analogous to Vietnam, where the bloodbath that became 1970s Cambodia was largely prepared by the crossborder refugee influx and massive U.S. bombing of Cambodia and Laos, in addition to South and North Vietnam.

The International Herald Tribune article linked above ends with the quaint sentence, "UNHCR hopes to find a permanent home for 20,000 Iraqi refugees by the end of the year." Ah, so the only organization likely to cater to their needs "hopes" that a tenth of them will be helped by the end of 2007.