This is a quick update to my earlier post about the situation of Iraqis at Jordan’s entry point. According to the Associated Press, Jordan and Syria are calling on the international community for help.
AMMAN, Jordan –Jordan and Syria complained Thursday they have been abandoned by the West to deal with the massive burden of more than 2 million Iraqi refugees who have fled the violence in their homeland. Both countries issued urgent calls for help at a conference on Iraqi refugees, specifically expanded resettlement opportunities in the West and financial assistance.
Milad Atiya, the Syrian ambassador to Jordan and head of his country’s delegation to the conference, said the international community "must be involved, especially the United States because its policy led to the plight the Iraqis are currently in and it bears responsibility." Jordanian Interior Ministry Secretary-General Mukheimar Abu-Jamous argued that Western nations "relinquished their responsibility in shouldering the Iraqi refugee burden, and we urge them to rise to their obligation and resettle the largest number possible of those Iraqis." Source: [AP]
This is a good step towards improving the dire status. International intervention is what is needed at this moment and it is precisely what I suggested in the previous post.
AlurduniAlhurr,
Look, you can believe what you want and say what you want. Bottom line is that you are supporting al Qaeda if you think that their actions are justified. That’s sick and twisted, and you’re not doing much for the Arab name by making these excuses. So many Arabs are terrified, horrified, and disgusted with the actions of al Qaeda, and are trying to get people to see that just because one is Arab that doesn’t mean they agree with terrorism. Al Qaeda is evil, those Americans who intentionally kill the innocent are evil and are no better than al Qaeda. Plain and simple. Unlike you, I am not going to make excuses for their actions. They are wrong. You condoning the terrorists actions actually really scares me. I can’t beieve that there are people who actually find excuses for their actions. It’s VERY scary.
Here is the right link
dm,,it seems you getting your facts from Mars,I really really feel sorry for people like and graig,you have all the tools in the world in front of you to find about American gangsterism Just google Man Google and here what happened to the soldiers who committed crimes in Iraq,Jan. 3, 2004 – Two young Iraqis, Zaydun al-Samarrai and Marwan Hassoun, were transporting bathroom fixtures in their truck when it broke down and their trip back home was delayed. As they stood by the side of the road at 10:45 p.m., 15 minutes before the American-imposed curfew in Samarra, an American patrol chanced upon them – and that’s when the trouble started.
One more question for both of you, Does invasion and Massive bombardement of civilian infurstucture that was justified by a lie, considered terrorism or high crime???
I never said I agree with this war and the invasion of Iraq. I’ve been against it from day 1. It seems like you are making excuses for al Qaeda. More innocent Iraqis have died at Arab hands than American. Every day hundreds of Iraqis are MURDERED by the al Qaeda. No, the U.S. isn’t perfect, and yes, I disagree with the invasion of Iraq, but don’t try to make excuses for the terrorists because that just makes me sick. Seems like I can admit when my country makes a mistake, but you are unwilling to admit that the “insurgents”, “freedom fighters (your words)” and terrorists (what they truly are) are wrong. Their purpose, again, is to wipe out the world and if you were in Iraq right now, they’d try to kill you AND your entire family. The U.S. would not be intentionally trying to do that and if they did, those involved would be severely punished. Every American who has intentionally hurt or killed an Iraqi–that we have proof of–is now in prison facing the death penalty. Can’t say that about the insurgents. They’re getting sympathy from people like you.
I abhor people who kill, no matter who they are. Yeah, maybe the insurgents are mad and angry, but them killing other Iraqis is excusable? Those Americans involved in killing innocent Arabs are just as wrong as the insurgents. I get pretty pissed off about a lot of things too, but you don’t see me going out killing people for the hell of it. Just to release some anger? Stop making excuses. Evil is evil, no matter who it is that’s doing it.
One more question for both of you, Does invasion and Massive bombardement of civilian infurstucture that was justified by a lie, considered terrorism
or high crime??? And before you answer, think of the tens of thousands of civilian that were killed by this illegal invasion.
AlurduniAlhurr, I would use whatever label was appropriate to their behavior. As far as I know, there isn’t a single militant group in Iraq that is resisting occupation lawfully, and none of the groups are entitled therefore to be called “insurgent”. All of the groups are murderous criminals. All victimize the innocent as a primary modus operandi.
But what does the label that gets applied to militants in Iraq have to do with refugees?
If they were killing other innocent Americans, holding them hostage, torturing innocent people, I’d call them terrorists. Mind you that the insurgents (yes, TERRORISTS) are killing more innocent Iraqis and other Arabs than anyone else. If a group of crazy Americans started blowing themselves up in downtown Boston, NYC, Baltimore, DC, wherever — they’d certainly be terrorists in my book, and that’s EXACTLY what the insurgents are. There’s your answer.
I just have one simple question for Graig and the rest of you,if US was invaded by foreign troops,and after short time ,group of Americans such as , patriotic American,such as Patrick Henry who once said,while fighting, the British “give me freedom or give death”, decided to fight and mobilised against the foreign invaders, will you ,Graig and the rest of you,call them terrorist, insurgents or freedom fighters ????
Please ansewer the question.
NGOs report humanitarian crisis in Iraq
LONDON – About 8 million Iraqis — nearly a third of the population — need immediate emergency aid because of the humanitarian crisis caused by the war, relief agencies said Monday.
That article also says many NGOs will not accept aid money from countries that have troops in Iraq. It also says many NGOs will not even operate in Iraq, due to the poor security, which is a major problem since 6 million of the 8 million Iraqis who need aid are in Iraq itself. I think the UN closed its operations in Iraq back 2003 after the bombing of the UN headquarters.
I don’t really know what can be done, but I don’t think it is feasible for 8 million Iraqis to be permanently relocated to other countries. And I have to say, I understand the US reluctance to accept Iraqi refugees. This is not a typical situation where a majority of refugees are fleeing tyranny or famine, drought, etc. It is impossible to know the ideology of the bulk of those Iraqi refugees, or what they would do (or may do) once relocated. Many of them may be former Baathists or former insurgents, driven out by the sectarian violence. Many of them may even be former shia militia members. I’ve read a number of articles that say the sectarian violence has followed Iraqis into Syria. I don’t know about Jordan. After seeing a large number of Iraqi bloggers gleefully commenting that Iraqis should pay the US back by fighting their war in America, I personally don’t think it’d be a good idea to accept a lot of Iraqi refugees into the US that we don’t really know anything about. And it is impossible for us to do adequate checks on their background. Somebody who says they want Asylum could be anyone. Anyone at all. We’d never know. And even if it was only 1% of the people we took in who harbored us ill will, that would be a major problem.
And I don’t trust Syria’s statements, or intent, at all on this one. Many of the terrorists causing trouble in Lebanon the last couple of months were insurgents in Iraq before they found their way into Lebanon. Via Syria. Wouldn’t that be sweet, if Syria could find a way to ship some of those asshats to the US as “refugees”?
Dm and Craig,
The insurgents present now in Iraq would have been present in any Arab or Middle Eastern country if instability was created inside them. These insurgents come from many countries Jordan included. After the was these militant groups received funding from Iran and probably some other Arab countries. They might have been some al-Qaeda members in IRaq, as there are probably other members who are from alQaeda or share the same ideology with it inside every Arab country and mnay countries in Europe and the US itself, but it’s up to the political system to find them or at least prevent them from working.
There are different ways to do that, could be by mass executions like Saddam and Syria did in the past or by stong intelligence like other countries do. It’s clear Bush administration still has no clue about what to do about it.
Craig, yes Saddam was responsible for many hmunaitarian crises, that’s why he was executed.
I know that the US accepted many refugees, that’s a great thing about America. But when a country starts an unnecessary war, it should be at least partially responsible for its consequences.