HISTORIC IRAQ REFUGEE CRISIS: We Americans are responsible. What are we going to do?

"This is what we have done."
Nir Rosen in Washington, 14 May 2007

With that simple sentence journalist Nir Rosen concluded his talk about the worst refugee crisis in the history of the modern Middle East. That 20-minute talk is what you are now watching in this video.

Rosen was speaking in Washington the day after his extraordinary article about the Iraqi refugee crisis appeared on the cover of the Sunday New York Times.

In addition to being an extraordinary journalist Nir Rosen is a thoughtful and courageous Jewish American.

He began his lunchtime talk at the New America Foundation by recalling in fact the previous worst refugee crisis in the Middle East. That was in 1948 when some 700,000+ Palestinians were forced to flee at the time of Israel’s creation. As Rosen so rightly points out we are still living with the aftermath of what happened then.

In tying together 1948 and today Rosen was making a critical point.
We, the citizens of the United States, at the least bear a considerable responsibility for the Iraqi refugee crisis. Some 2 million Iraqis have had to flee their country in the past few years as a direct result of the American invasion and occupation. Another 2 million Iraqis have been displaced, many now homeless and destitute, within the borders of Iraq — this in a country with a total population of only 25 million.

So there is beyond question a tremendous moral and humanitarian responsibility that we are not acknowledging or meeting.

But however great the need and the responsibility, Rosen made clear in his talk that he is not optimistic that the United States is prepared to provide serious refugee relief in the amounts required.

And so by starting his talk referring to the ramifications of what happened as a result of the greatest previous refugee crisis, the Palestinians in 1948, Rosen appeals to Americans to think about the dangerous ramifications for our country, and for our world, if once again we do not step forward and seriously work to rectify this refugee crisis now.

New York Times: Slideshow Pictures of Refugees

New York Times: VIDEO - The Refugee Flight From Iraq - Part 1

New York Times: VIDEO - The Refugee Flight from Iraq - Part II

May 25, 2007 | Filed Under GFA