Hello From Jordan or What Exactly Are We Doing About Our Iraqi Friends?

As the administration is asking Congress for an additional $190 billion for the Iraq war, why should we listen to a lone voice? The email I have just received from an Iraqi friend, S, who was working for a U.S. aid agency in Iraq was particularly haunting to me because I met him when I was in Darfur. Here is a man who has been from one catastrophe to another. He had been doing advance logistics in one of the most dangerous parts of Darfur, trying to figure out how to get aid and medicine to stranded survivors of the genocide. He didn't bat an eyelid about his own safety. I didn't go to the areas he was frequenting because they were considered too dangerous for a visiting writer like me. That was over two years ago. Read the email I just received:

Dear Mrs. Jane,

It's been a long time when we met in Darfur - Nyala 2005 !! How are you doing?? Hope life is treating you well.

It is almost two years since I returned from Darfur to Baghdad. At that time, I thought that I was returning home where I can live happily and safely with my family, but I did not know that I would be forced out of the country a year after (June 2006).

I left Iraq last year after the kidnapping and assassination of one of our colleagues at the ***** in Baghdad. The level of danger was unbearable and I do not think I would've made it so far if I stayed over there. Few months after my departure to Jordan, my family (brother and father) got threats and since then they all left to Syria. Those who threatened my family were accusing us of working for the Americans.

Anyhow, I got into the Royal Jordanian Air Academy to get a refresher Avionics course in Jordan. Successfully, I graduated couple of months ago Yet, the Jordanian authorities started to make it so difficult for me to stay in Jordan. They are trying to deport most of the Iraqis in Jordan. As I cannot go back to Iraq fearing for our lives (me and my own family), and I started to think of traveling to the U.S.

I knew that the U.S. department of State is promising to bring 7,000 Iraqis who had worked with Americans or got involved with the U.S. mission in Iraq. I am writing to you today asking if you have any idea of how to make use of this opportunity? Is there any way that I can come to the U.S. under this umbrella? If this does not fit me well, is there any way that I can come to the U.S.

Dear Mrs Jane, this is my story in short. You know that I would not bother you if the situation was bearable, but it seems that I've reached to a blind end. So if there is anything that you can think of or assist with to help me out from this situation (visa, refugee recommendation), then I would be very grateful.

Thanks in advance for your care and time. Hoping to hear from you.

S

How can I help this man? What is our moral responsibility to Iraqis who have worked for Americans? What is our responsibility to Iraqi humanitarians like S? Jordan should not be blamed for his dilemma, having taken in 700,000 refugees, representing around 10 percent of their population. The delay in bringing any refugees to the USA is deplorable. If only the U.S. would accept one tenth of one percent of our population as refugees that would be a huge improvement. We must do better by the people like my friend S, people who work in places and situations where most of us would not dare to tread.

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Comments

[Zenobius]

Who do you know in the State Department?

[maddogbitesback]

This man is alive. How many are dead? The invasion of Iraq was illegal and immoral. The American people were lied to deliberately and with cunning. The solution is not to take in the millions of refugees. The solution is to impeach Bush and Cheney and lock up the others who helped in this international outrage. Your right to dive a gas guzzler rather than a hybrid is the cause of this man's despair and of the despair of the millions like him. Bush and Cheney should have all their money confiscated and used to rebuild Iraq using honest contractors. Before that can happen, those rich who benefitted from the tax cuts can pay back the taxes they saved to insure the poor people in America who cannot afford to pay for health care.

It is a situation so shameful that Americans are in no position to condemn or blame other countries for their outrageous behavior re suppression, exploitation or even ethnic cleansing. General Petraeus spoke the words the president wanted him to say. The truth is Americans in Iraq aggravate the situation.

[locanicole]

Unfortunately the US is in the position of being morally responsible both for the people who had to flee as well as the people who are stuck in country...­however, that does not mean that we have to stay there in a combat attitude..­.work with the UN and the world...us­e diplomacy with Iraq's neighbors and help to re-build the country we destroyed.­..we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.­..I try to teach my children to not take what doesn't belong to them, compromise and walk away...onl­y fight if it's absolutely necessary.­..and then our President and our Congress step up just screw that all up...Im left with the old lame story, "...well,i­f your friends jumped off a bridge, would you do that too..."

There is something seriously wrong with this country when we want to take away people's choices and make them live one way, but then refuse our aid to deal with the consequenc­es...wrong­, wrong, wrong...