Iraq refugee crisis exploding, 40% of middle class believed to have fled crumbling nation

[ck4829]

Iraq is in the throes of the largest refugee crisis in the Middle East since the Palestinian exodus from Israel in 1948, a mass flight out of and within the country that is ravaging basic services and commerce, swamping neighboring nations with nearly 2 million refugees and building intense pressure for emigration to Europe and the United States, according to the United Nations and refugee experts.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, which appealed for $60 million in emergency aid last week, believes 1.7 million Iraqis are displaced inside Iraq, whose prewar population was 21 million. About 50,000 Iraqis are fleeing inside Iraq each month, the United Nations said, and 500,000 have been displaced since last February's bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra. These figures are as of January 2007.

The Bush administration and the governments of Jordan and Syria, the nations that accept the bulk of the refugees, have been reluctant to acknowledge the humanitarian crisis, experts said.

"I think everyone at this point is in denial about the human consequences of the war," said Kathleen Newland, director of the Migration Policy Institute, who is familiar with the State Department's views.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/01/16/MNG2MNJBIS1.DTL

[tanyev]

1. Guess the RWers never thought about these consequences.

Because we're fighting them there, a lot of them will come and live here.

[Nickster]

2. That's pretty much the Neocon wetdream really. In their perfect world the corporations

have free reign and there is only a lower worker class and a higher corporate type. If there is a thriving middle class, then all those lovely free market forces can't work the way the neo-cons envision. Not to mention this puts the burden of providing essential care services for those refugees on the backs of other nations, yet another way to eliminate govt spending on the huddled masses.

[NewJeffCT]

3. There you go again, exposing your liberal bias

Why not report on the 60% of the middle class that has not fled? And, over 25 million Iraqis were not killed yesterday - that is way higher than the number of Texans or New Yorkers not killed yesterday. And, to top it off, al-Maliki has not been assassinated yet since the Iraqi constitution was drafted, while America has had several presidents assassinated since our Constitution was drafted.

[whistle]

4. The Bush administration is not in denial, this is unfolding exactly as planned

....The administration has been lying to the American people by refusing to acknowledge these events and discouraging reporting of the facts. The military and diplomatic plan all along has been to completely conquer and occupy Iraq, put a puppet government in place which will comply with the dictates of the Bush administration and force the people of Iraq to obey or die. That was why John Negroponte was sent to Iraq by Bush. Everything is happening in Iraq exactly as intended.