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Humanitarian Tsunami Sweeping Across Iraq
The United States cannot solve the crisis in Iraq and beyond unless it takes responsibility for the unprecedented humanitarian crisis it has created in Iraq.
Imagine 1.5 million Canadians being killed and another 6.5 million either forced to flee Canada or displaced internally. That's about what has happened to the Iraqis.
Up to 1.2 million of them, out of a population of 21 million, may have been killed since 2003. And one in five Iraqis has been displaced.
Two million, maybe more, have fled to neighbouring nations, and another 2.2 million have been displaced internally. Of the latter, the world knows the least, and for a reason.
Foreign media representatives have been confined to Baghdad's Green Zone. And Iraqi journalists, covering the news from across the country at great personal risk, have been reporting mostly about the daily bombings and killings.
Only the UN agencies and NGOs based here in Jordan, or in Kuwait - and co-ordinating relief operations inside Iraq through the Iraqi Red Crescent and other local groups - have kept close watch on the movement of people inside Iraq.
About half the internally uprooted Iraqis predate the 2003 invasion - victims of earlier upheavals: the 1980-'88 Iraq-Iran war (in which the U.S. backed Saddam Hussein); his post-1991 Gulf War suppression of the Shiites (who rose up on the say-so of the first President Bush, George H.W., only to be abandoned by him - he having gone fishing the day the crackdown began); and Saddam's "Arabization" of the Kurdish region through forced settlements.
But more than 1 million have been displaced since the U.S. invasion.
About 200,000 were uprooted by U.S. military operations in Falluja (twice), Najaf, Ramdi, Haditha, etc.
But the real upheaval began after the February 2006 bombing of the Shiite shrine at Samarrah, by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Besides triggering Sunni-Shiite warfare, it marked the point when the U.S. and allies lost control of the country.
Not every upheaval since is explained by the sectarian warfare. Militants have been killing army and police recruits or anyone working for the allies, as well as Iraqi professionals, regardless of sect.
"As one group began to dominate a certain area, it'd force others to leave," said Daunia Pavone, an aid worker who has focused on Iraq's internally displaced persons for the past three years.
In Sunni areas, they would force the Shiites out, and vice versa. In mixed neighbourhoods, they'd target the minority. They'd spread terror by killing a prominent person, or leaving threatening notes or sending emails and text messages.
In the initial stages, a family at least had time to sell its property or arrange an exchange in another area. But as anarchy spread, and criminals began eyeing properties, the ultimatums got shorter - in many cases, less than 24 hours.
Many provinces have placed restrictions on the entry of the displaced due to overcrowding or shortages of food, water and other essentials, or because of fears that terrorists may slip in with the masses.
Some provinces demand that new arrivals show cash or proof of a local sponsor. Yet others let the homeless in but do not give them access the Public Distribution System of subsidized food, gasoline and other rations, principally because ration cards also confer voting rights. New arrivals threaten upsetting the Arab-Kurdish or Shiite-Sunni power balance.
The net result is that tens of thousands of Iraqis are roaming from province to province looking for a safe haven.
Said Sara, an Iraqi who does not want her last name used: "In Saddam's time, you knew how to protect yourself: `Don't get involved in politics.' Now you don't know how to protect yourself. You may be killed going to the bazaar. It's a tsunami that has hit Iraq."
© Copyright Toronto Star 1996-2007
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11 Comments so far
Show AllThis is why I refer to the USA as the United States of Atrocities.
This is why I refer to our ugly American flag as the Star Spangled Butcher's Apron.
Fairly mild compared to what happened in North America. The right-wingers of North American learned that you need to kill nearly all the natives if you don't want some repercussions later.
FIGMENT: While I agree it seems the entire nation is being cleared like a foot ball field after a big game, the presumption that wiping out a population leads to no repercussions is faulty. Just because human beings facing the span of small lifetimes fail to connect the dots, does not mean that larger forces are not monitoring. Lords of karma, the justice meted out takes lifetimes to express. This IS a lawful universe. Water freezes at 32 degrees, up until recently the seasons followed their timely courses, human beings pulse to 98.6 degrees, etc. Much more profound mechanisms regulate what we can't see and are not positioned to conceptualize. Very high adepts and spiritual teachers have spoken of these things. It's our choice whether to believe; however, akin to the law of gravity, choice doesn't ultimately factor into the net effect.
"Up to 1.2 million of them, out of a population of 21 million, may have been killed since 2003. And one in five Iraqis has been displaced."
In the U.S., with its population of 300,000,000, that would equate to more than 15,000,000 killed and 60,000,000 displaced. Given that, what kind of idiot would claim to be "winning hearts and minds"? Try to wrap your mind around what would be going on in the U.S. if a larger power had inflicted something like that on us. Wouldn't you finally become and "insurgent"?
I agree. Just as in Viet Nam our military and the contractors are operating under the false assumption that there is a limited number of "bad guys" and if we could just massacre them all Big Capital could reign with the assistance of the lower classes' youth to police the streets and do any remaining dying there was to be done.
But the truth is that every Iraqi with honor and conscience now hates the occupier and feels it their duty to expel or kill them.
The "bad guys" are the ones who are willing to sell out their country and their souls for money. They are the ones willing to work for the occupier. So we self select the corrupt and dishonorable for our allies and fail to even recognize that it is the "good guys" we are trying to eliminate.
This dilemma has resulted in the eventual defeat of colonialism every time. It did in Viet Nam and it assuredly will in Iraq too.
I am in full agreement with Siouxrouse but just wish the karmic retributions would be quicker in the coming, and the spiritual rewards more tangible for the suffering innocents. I personally can't wait for another cycle of the creation and destruction of the universe (kalpa) to see justice done.
commander_n_chimp - and what do you do when you are not making up childish names for things? Accompolishing anything concrete and positive? Getting your hands dirty helping people?
I didn't think so.
The Russians lost a contract for the vast West Qurna oil field. Basically canceled by the US. There's so much cash to be had out of that pot o' gold, it makes you wonder whether the US can hold onto it's International composure. The spoils usually do go to the brutal victor. Oh yeah, there are a bunch of people who live in Iraq too. Now that the oil excitement is finally 'surging' to the surface, we can get on with the handouts to the ravaged masses.
Gene Therapy, that is so true. We get our hackles up over 9-11, a serious tragedy all right, but how many 9-11's have we committed against Iraq in the name of freedom? How many more of their citizens have felt the direct impact of war than have our citizens? And all this misery is inflicted upon the wrong country, much of it well beyond Saddam's capture. So much of the "war on terror" is simply misdirected and gratuitous cruelty; how can this not contribute to further violence against us at a future date?
"commander_n_chimp - and what do you do when you are not making up childish names for things? Accompolishing [sic] anything concrete and positive? Getting your hands dirty helping people?
I didn't think so."
Only a naive (childish) mind holds respect for this horrible country or its ugly flag, which is a horrible symbol of its crimes and atrocities. The humanitarian crisis and genocide (yes, genocide) taking place in Iraq is the largest war crime in a generation, and it is being perpetrated by a country that purports to advance the causes of civilization and enlightenment. Instead, the United States is doing the exact opposite by advancing barbarism and demagoguery in the 2000s to a sick scale not seen since the same, horrible country did so in the 1960s. Some civilized democratic-republic. I am underwhelmed.
And since you might try and be clever and call me out on my accusation of genocide in Iraq, I would recommend that you first look up the name Raphael Lamkin and learn about the legal definition of genocide. The United States of Atrocities is engaged in the destruction of the people of Iraq in part. The USA does pay for one ethnic group to ethnically cleanse its area of minority groups. How else do you explain the fact that 20% of the population are refugees? How else do you explain the deaths of one million Iraqis? (These are rhetorical questions; don't answer since you are likely an imbecile) The forced migration of people constitute genocide under Lamkin's definition, which is reflected in international law.
So, no. My observations were not childish though they were indeed laconic.
If we were a truly honest country. We would be flying the skull and crossbones above the White house! As has been said on this blog in so many words we are all losing respect for this country. And that is a shame in and of itself that may never be fixed. Damn you George Bush you blind,lying disgusting piece of crap for a human being!