In April 2003, President George W. Bush outlined the progress of Operation
Iraqi Freedom at the headquarters of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, an
F-18 fighter jet production facility in St. Louis.
“We believe that people across the Middle East and across the world are
weary of poverty, weary of oppression, and yearn to be free,” he said,
pausing for applause. “And all who know that hope, all who will work and
sacrifice for freedom, have a friend in the United States of America.”
But the U.S. 10 years later is loath to invite too many of our friends
inside our borders. Of the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees who have fled the
country, 80,000, or 5 percent, have been resettled here in the U.S.
Meanwhile, Sweden accepted an average of about 10,000 Iraqi refugees a year
from 2006 to 2009, bringing the number of asylum seekers to about 50,000 in
a country with a population 30 times smaller than ours.
Most Iraqi refugees, along with those internally displaced in Iraq, have
received little attention from the nation that sought to bring them
freedom. In the last four years, the U.S. has spent $2.1 billion on
refugees in the Middle East region, with that funding dispersed among
Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Libya, Morocco, Oman, the Palestinian territories, Qatar, Saudi Arabia,
Syria, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
By contrast, the “too big to fail” banks enjoy an informal insurance
policy from the government that costs $83 billion a year, according to a
recent Bloomberg report.
The Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) for Iraqi and Afghan civilians, created
in 2008, were meant to expedite the process of resettlement for those who
provided “faithful and valuable service” to U.S. efforts in the wars and
who might face “ongoing serious threats” as a result of their actions.
Flawed criteria for admittance, coupled with technical difficulties many
refugees face in the application process, have led to a dearth of visas. Of
the possible 25,000 SIVs, only 5,500 have been issued. The program, which
anticipated four times as many resettlements, expired at the end of fiscal
year 2012, failing many applicants who have struggled to relocate
themselves and their families.
Earlier this month, 19 members of the House of Representatives sent a
letter to President Barack Obama asking him to extend the program. They
cited problems of inefficiency, lack of transparency and discrepancies
between the Afghan and Iraqi SIVs—22 percent of the available Iraqi SIVs
have been approved, but only 12 percent of Afghan ones have been issued.
“Innumerable Afghans who served the U.S. Government wait in peril,” the
letter noted, “their lives and family threatened.”
The letter, however, did not point out where much of the danger and damage
in Iraq and Afghanistan have come from. It did not contain the number of
refugees or internally displaced citizens, which has grown in the last 10
years, nor did it juxtapose the $1.7 trillion cost of the war in Iraq with
the scant $2.1 billion in aid the U.S. has spread across more than a dozen
countries.
The gap between Bush’s words and actions should be remembered as Republican
lawmakers such as Rep. Mike Rogers of Michigan and Sen. Lindsey Graham of
South Carolina call for intervention in Syria for the sake of liberty.
*This article was made possible by the Center for Study of Responsive Law.
<http://csrl.org>*
On Tuesday, December 2, 2014 7:58:02 AM UTC-6, Travis wrote:
>
> All part of Obama's sole purpose in life: To destroy the Untied States
> politically, socially, and economically and turning it into a shariashit
> sandbox.
>
>
> BareNakedIslam posted: "The United Nations high commissioner for
> refugees has already dumped 200,000 to 250,000 Muslim refugees from Islamic
> countries to be resettled in the United States. Most of them have come from
> Somalia and Iraq. But Caliph Obama has been greasing the skids"
> New post on *BARE NAKED ISLAM*
> <http://www.barenakedislam.com/?author=1> Hey, America, guess who else
> Obama is dumping onto your state welfare troughs? Thousands of refugees,
> MUSLIM REFUGEES, some with terrorist ties
> <http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/12/02/hey-america-guess-who-else-obama-is-dumping-onto-your-state-welfare-troughs-thousands-of-refugees-muslim-refugees-some-with-terrorist-ties/>
> by
> BareNakedIslam <http://www.barenakedislam.com/?author=1>
>
> The United Nations high commissioner for refugees has already dumped
> 200,000 to 250,000 Muslim refugees from Islamic countries to be resettled
> in the United States. Most of them have come from Somalia and Iraq. But
> Caliph Obama has been greasing the skids for the Syrian (Muslim only, no
> Christian) refugees for months and they will […]
>
> Read more of this post
> <http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/12/02/hey-america-guess-who-else-obama-is-dumping-onto-your-state-welfare-troughs-thousands-of-refugees-muslim-refugees-some-with-terrorist-ties/>
> *BareNakedIslam <http://www.barenakedislam.com/?author=1>* | December
> 2, 2014 at 12:30 am | Categories: Islam in America
> <http://www.barenakedislam.com/?taxonomy=category&term=islam-in-america>
> | URL: http://wp.me/p276zM-19T9
>
> Comment
> <http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/12/02/hey-america-guess-who-else-obama-is-dumping-onto-your-state-welfare-troughs-thousands-of-refugees-muslim-refugees-some-with-terrorist-ties/#respond>
>
> See all comments
> <http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/12/02/hey-america-guess-who-else-obama-is-dumping-onto-your-state-welfare-troughs-thousands-of-refugees-muslim-refugees-some-with-terrorist-ties/#comments>
>
>
> Unsubscribe
> <https://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=7f89380f46003915c34c2cdd2b126a38&email=bovinescatologists%40gmail.com&b=LCPj%5DSrkdoq%26wX%25%2B%7CmnApYv5Oekz8bZVTHsTQvWPWziODnKNj%2Fy>
>
> to no longer receive posts from BARE NAKED ISLAM.
> Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions
> <https://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=7f89380f46003915c34c2cdd2b126a38&email=bovinescatologists%40gmail.com>.
>
>
>
> *Trouble clicking?* Copy and paste this URL into your browser:
>
> http://www.barenakedislam.com/2014/12/02/hey-america-guess-who-else-obama-is-dumping-onto-your-state-welfare-troughs-thousands-of-refugees-muslim-refugees-some-with-terrorist-ties/
>
>
>
>
>
--
--
Thanks for being part of "PoliticalForum" at Google Groups.
For options & help see http://groups.google.com/group/PoliticalForum
* Visit our other community at http://www.PoliticalForum.com/
* It's active and moderated. Register and vote in our polls.
* Read the latest breaking news, and more.
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups
"PoliticalForum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email
to [email protected].
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
