Tom Kean, former New Jersey governor and co-chair of the 9-11 commission is endorsing John McCain for president today, says the Politico. The endorsement will clearly signal that McCain is strong on national security issues.
This comes on the heels of an interesting fact John McCain pulled out while on the campaign trail over the weekend that could be an indication of great recent success in Iraq -- or of a worsening plight, depending on how you look at it. "I'm happy to tell you that exodus has turned around and Iraqis are now coming back from Jordan and other places back to Iraq because we have established an environment in which they can live more peacefully," McCain said at a New Hampshire town hall meeting on Sunday.
It's true that Iraqis are returning home. Iraq's Ministry of Displacement and Migration has said about 46,000 Iraqi refugees returned to their war-ravaged country in October. "We are simply living in a better and obvious security situation," said Gen. Qassim Atta, according to CNN.
However, CNN's report glosses over the fact that the increased number of refugees returning home happens to coincide with strict new laws being enforced against Iraqi refugees in Syria and Jordan, which together harbor more than 90 percent of the 2.2 million people who have left the country. Syria now demands incoming Iraqis have Visas, and Jordan has begun turning people back, AP reported. Additionally, refugees already in those countries will either have to be officially recognized as refugees by the United Nations or leave once their residency permits expire. Many of those who manage to stay in these safer countries legally ultimately return simply because they cannot afford to live outside Iraq. "Going back to Baghdad means going to death row, but we have no money left that could allow us to go on living here," said one returning Iraqi to AP.
To cite statistics about returning Iraqis as a reason for optimism, McCain must either be so inclined to find success wherever possible that he is completely missing the bigger picture, or he is willfully deceiving people in New Hampshire. Either case doesn't exactly help his campaign, regardless of his endorsements.
But since Mr. McCain was kind enough to bring it up, the plight of Iraqi refugees is certainly worth exploring further.
Though millions of Iraqis have fled their country because of a war instigated by the U.S., the United States is harboring relatively few refugees. Only 1,608 were admitted last year, noted Bill Frelick, Refugee Policy Director for Human Rights Watch, when he testified on Nov. 15 before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. The U.S. aims to resettle 12,000 this year, but Frelick said that goal would not likely be reached. Even if it did, he said, that only amounts to the number of Iraqis who flee to Syria within a span of six days.
He also had this to say: "The Bush Administration has boosted its 2008 emergency request to fund the Iraq and Afghan wars to $196.4 billion, bringing the total price tag to more than $800 billion. Less than one-fifth of 1 percent of that request, $240 million—less than the amount the U.S. spends each day to wage the war—is slated for emergency relief, basic health services and education for the 4.4 million Iraqis who have been forced from their homes."
If the U.S. does not provide more aid to refugees and the countries that harbor them, Frelick said, "Jordan’s and Syria’s borders will remain closed, more refugees will be forced back, and the present emergency could well escalate into a full-fledged disaster... The United States needs to spend money to save lives where it can and prevent further resentment and destabilization that could bring far greater costs in the years to come."
Maybe someone just needs to get John McCain something read other than official Iraqi press releases.
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