READY TO IMPORT IRAQ'S QUIRKY LITTLE PROBLEMS TO AMERICA?

A few weeks ago I posted a story called What Will Bush-- Or Hillary-- Do With The Iraqi Quislings? and I want to bring up a thoughtful comment that was left by an anonymous reader:

I used to be an admirer of this blog. I would guess you just hate and fear Arabs and oppose their immigration.

I've been to Iraq and know some of the people you call "quislings." Of course, by using this term you equate the US to Nazis and the murderous Iraqi insurgency, composed of murderous Baathist ex- secret police, Al Qaeda units which kill barbers for shaving people and drive bombs into markets crowded with civilians and other religious fanatic killers, to the Allies and Norwegian resistance.

The Iraqis who work with us a largely secular intellectuals who believe in things like the electoral democracy we imposed on the country. Many are people who opposed Saddam's fascist regime. Whatever you think about the war, their motives are mostly patriotic.

I neither hate nor fear groups of people-- not races nor nationalities nor ethnicities. If I hated Arabs I don't think I would have travelled to Morocco a dozen times since 1969. The third proposition, though, is one worth talking about: opposing their immigration to this country.

Today's NY Times ran a story, Obstacles Keep Iraqi Refugees From US, and when I opened it I was thinking, "OMG, did Bush actually do something right for a change?" That was unkind of me, as well as incorrect. The Bush Regime seems more than willing to take in thousands of Iraqi refugees as that country crumbles further into an all out civil war entirely of of their (the Bush Regime's) making. But like with most everything the U.S. has stuck its nose in there, even that is failing.

Despite a stepped-up commitment from the United States to take in Iraqis who are in danger because they worked for the American government and military, very few are signing up to go, resettlement officials say.

The reason, Iraqis say, is that they are not allowed to apply in Iraq, requiring them to make a costly and uncertain journey to countries like Syria or Jordan, where they may be turned away by border officials already overwhelmed by fleeing Iraqis.

Americans of all political stripes who have come to know Iraqis due to this most horrible of circumstances-- the invasion, brutal occupation and complete breakdown of civil society-- are advocating bringing Iraqis who worked for the Bush Regime efforts there, over to America to keep them from being killed as traitors. Raise your hand if you think the people of this country favor importing thousands of Arabs to America.

The culture clash-- as demonstrated all over Europe-- isn't one that's going to work out. The idea of assimilation isn't something they're looking for. I listened to an interview today on KCRW with Lucette Lagnado about her highly acclaimed new book The Man in the Sharskin Suit and you can too. Her father was a wealthy Egyptian Jew who came, reluctantly, to the U.S. to escape persecution after Nasser took over and Jews became unwelcome in Cairo. From the interview I got the impression that her father was a religionist fanatic, albeit a peaceful one, who didn't fit in and was miserable in America. Something tells me his America is like a picnic compared to what it will be for a bunch of Iraqis-- who are less peaceful and, at least in some cases-- maybe even in cases not yet born-- just as fanatically religionist.

Do we have enough problems here without importing the misery of the Middle East? Ask the English if they'd like to do it over again. This is a problem that should not be dictated by the asshats inside the Beltway before it is thoroughly debated by the American people.