Well, by golly, Matthew Lee, intrepid AP reporter is back  (two hours and twenty minutes ago!), but a couple of days late.  Every month like clockwork Mr. Lee bashed the Bush Administration for not admitting enough Iraqi refugees to satisfy the insatiable non-governmental agencies and the volags appetites for new immigrants to resettle in a town near you.   I remember back in October he was on the story before the stroke of midnight on Halloween with the paltry numbers for October.     I missed him for a few months, but here he is again. 

The story is basically the same although the numbers were up for last month. 

First, he always tells us how bad the numbers have been, better now, but overall they have been abysmal:

After months of falling short of the average number of admissions needed to meet the target, officials said 1,141 Iraqi refugees had been admitted in May, the first time since 2003 that the 1,000 per month mark has been surpassed. Officials also for the first time released figures for Iraqi refugees in the processing pipeline who have not yet been allowed in.

Then we learn AGAIN that compared to benevolent Sweden we stink (oh, never any mention that Sweden is having problems and deporting Iraqis, don’t confuse anyone with the facts!): 

The 12,000 target is still far lower than other many countries, notably Sweden, which has admitted about 40,000 since 2003, and only a small slice of the some 2 million Iraqis who have fled to neighboring countries, mainly Syria, Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Egypt.

There is always the mention of “critics” (hey, Matthew why don’t you ever ask non-critics like me and Judy) and the United States’s moral duty: 

The United States has come under criticism from advocacy groups and lawmakers for its poor performance on admitting Iraqi refugees who have fled violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Many critics say, and officials acknowledge, that the administration has a moral obligation to the refugees and is not doing enough to help them.

And, finally James (we deserve a whipping) Foley the State Department coordinator admits that they know they have fallen short but they are trying oh so hard:

We have a long way to go and we recognize that,” said James Foley, the State Department’s coordinator for Iraqi refugees. Foley was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to streamline the admissions process and meet the goal of admitting 12,000 Iraqi refugees during the current budget year.

“It’s a tall order,” he said. “It’s a difficult hurdle, but we are determined to succeed and we are increasingly confident that we can. The infrastructure is now fully in place.” 

There is NEVER any mention of security concerns that Homeland Security has about admitting Iraqis (the Muslim Iraqis that is).   And, NEVER NEVER do these lazy reporters discuss the alternatives to bringing tens of thousands to America, or NEVER any mention that hundreds of thousands of the Iraqi refugees in nearby countries have been there since Saddam Hussein drove them out of Iraq.

It’s always the same old story:  Millions of suffering Iraqis, it’s all our fault, bring them to America ASAP and Bush is bad.

If you have the stamina and the interest, go to our Iraqi Refugees category.  We have written 163 posts on the topic in the past year.   I’ll bet we know more about the subject then Mr. Lee.

The Chaldean Federation of America has a pretty good idea.   According to a recent newsletter, (hat tip: Chris) they aren’t simply demanding that we bring Iraqi refugees here by the tens of thousands, they are taking action by collecting funds and making sure the funds reach the Chaldean families in Syria, Lebanon, or Jordon.    We know that the money needed to resettle one refugee here is enough to care for dozens or more in their present country. 

The Chaldean Federation of America has made it easy for most anyone to help a refugee family. Bakal says the goal of the “Adopt-A-Refugee-Family” program is to help stabilize at least 600 of the direst families. Donors are able to contact the Chaldean Federation of America directly and begin the process of healing. The effort will go far in demonstrating the American people’s generosity and genuine concern for the victims of the Iraqi war.

Read about the Christian Chaldean plan.  Wonder why we don’t see wealthy Muslims in Europe or the US doing the same for their people in Syria?

I almost didn’t read the whole article because an annoying statement by Lavinia Limon of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants early in the article almost kept me from reading further.  She continues to promote this lie that our involvement in Iraq is entirely responsible for the Iraq refugee problem.   We reported yesterday that these NGO’s had been complaining for several years in advance of our arrival in Iraq that Saddam Hussein was creating a refugee crisis.  Here is what she said in the Chaldean newsletter: 

Many feel the United States have a responsibility to address the refugee crisis caused by the Iraq war and occupation. Current American policy denies any special American responsibility for Iraqi refugees although the entire world believes that the two million refugees are a bi-product of American actions in Iraq says Lavinia Limon. Limon is the former Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Department of Health and Human Service under the Clinton administration and current President and CEO of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).

Limon would have more credibility if she first admitted that the refugee situation in Iraq was a decades long problem created by Saddam Hussein and yes, exacerbated by the war which began in 2003 and the subsequent mishandling by the Iraqi government.

She goes on to lament that since the refugees are living in apartments in Syria and not in United Nations camps it is hard to help them.  Well, maybe they don’t need so much help because many haven’t even bothered to register with the UN as refugees. 

Readers, we are not getting an accurate story on the Iraqi refugees, because I don’t think the NGO’s want us to have one.  It suits their purpose to keep the “crisis” going because it is how they stay alive.  No crisis=no money.

If you have time and energy, go back to this report from the Brookings Institution which at least makes some effort to find out what is going on in Syria with the Iraqis and does mention, by the way, that many of the “refugees” have been in Syria since Saddam Hussein’s reign of terror.

Here is something else I’ve been wondering about and Judy has written about—the lack of initiative by the primarily Shia government of Iraq to repatriate and resettle refugees.  Go to the end of the Brookings report and see who the refugees are.

Albeit the sample is small, only 22% are Shia and the remainder are Sunni, Christians, Kurds and others.  It occurs to me, but I’m just guessing, that the elected Muslim Shite majority government of Iraq might not want any of these minorities back.   The 22% Shia represented in the Brookings report might be the extremists who dashed out of Iraq when the surge began which might further explain why the government of Iraq is dragging its feet on bringing home its displaced people or even sending them money to survive in neighboring countries.

Perhaps it really doesn’t want any of them—the minorities (including their own former persecutors, the Sunnis) or the extremists.

P.S.  I wonder how many families the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants is planning to sponsor with their own funds (not taxpayers money)?