Comments on: Iraqi Refugees Face Catch-22

By: Barry

Barry — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 11:13:06 +0000

James: "...just getting out of one’s village..."

Dave Schuler: "A third of Iraq's population lives in
metropolitan Baghdad. Like much of the Middle East,
Iraq's population is overwhelmingly urbanized.

I'm not trying to trivialize the dangers. Just setting
the record straight: most Iraqis aren't villagers."

Google 'baghdad+checkpoint+killing+militia' but only if you have a strong stomach.

Just moving a few miles in Baghdad is extremely
dangeous: there are the shiite militias running
checkpoints, the shiite militias running checkpoints
in uniforms gotten from their Iraqi police fellow
militia members, the Iraqi police who are also shiite
militiamen running checkpoints, the Iraqi Army who are
also shiite militiamen running checkpoints, the Iraqi
Army guys who are sunni arab guerrillas running
checkpoints and the sunni arab guerrillas running
checkpoints all on their own, without pretending to be
official (they, of course, are now Our Friends, but no
less unpleasant).

Oh, plus the US Army, otherwise known as people who
don't even speak the language, are obviously a tad bit
paranoid, are heavily armed, and can generally get
away with killing the odd Iraqi.

Makes a conventional war look cozy and homey.

By: legion

legion — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:40:21 +0000

Heh. Even if they got asylum, how would they get to the US? What are the Vegas odds on dark-skinned people of arab/persian descent, and actually from Iraq being allowed to board a plane by TSA? :-)

By: Triumph

Triumph — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:13:12 +0000

John Cole and I are apparently having a “mind meld.” We do, however, differ somewhat on the issue of whether it should be illegal to stalk people for sex in public restrooms

I didn't pick that up from the article, but I don't see why we should make it easy for gay Iraqi's to get visas here either. They will just tempt the Idaho Statesman into framing Larry Craig again.

By: Triumph

Triumph — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:09:59 +0000

This is what happens when you liberate a country full of maladroit liberals.

You give them all sorts of welfare money, a job, and now they are saying it isn't enough?!?!

These people are seriously ungrateful.

By: Dave Schuler

Dave Schuler — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 15:03:21 +0000

just getting out of one’s village

A third of Iraq's population lives in metropolitan Baghdad. Like much of the Middle East, Iraq's population is overwhelmingly urbanized.

I'm not trying to trivialize the dangers. Just setting the record straight: most Iraqis aren't villagers.

By: Ugh

Ugh — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:43:34 +0000

This policy makes perfect sense if you want to claim you're offering Iraqis asylum without actually having to admit any Iraqis.

Also, admitting large #s of Iraqis would be an admission of defeat for the Decider™, and thus intolerable.

By: Balloon Juice

Balloon Juice — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:41:20 +0000

[...] are times when James Joyner and I form a sort of blog mind meld, and here is another one (notice the Heller reference in the title). I am reasonably sure this observation will be [...]

By: charles austin

charles austin — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 14:25:37 +0000

This seems unfortunately similar to some of the policies enacted by the imperial British governments in Ireland and India in the 19th century, where those who were starving had to walk at least ten miles to a workhouse or other facility to prove that they truly were destitute and starving. I guess they thought back then that it helped weed out the truly starving from the merely hungry.