------ The Final Failure of the Bush Foriegn Policy is The Iraqi Refugee Crises------

One of the consequences of War in Iraq is the millions of well educated middle class Iraqi's that are fleeing their home country. The first time such a dynamic has played out, where refugees are not starving, but waiting out an end to a war, living on their savings. They have been swelling the ranks of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The poets, the technocrats, doctors, professors, the educated class, that graduated from Iraq's many Universities, speak English well that have fled the war zone, hoping to 'wait out' the war, earnestly waiting for the now broken promise from the US, of a new and stable Iraq. At the moment these once well to do Iraqi's are not so much concerned about food, but about their children who are not attending school, because there aren't any schools to go to.

As these once well to do refugees run out of money their choices are stark. The uprooted families and their children who have not attended school are desparate. How will they view the 'liberation' of Iraq by US forces. Will they hold a lasting resentment against the US? Will they be recruited to fight to expel US forces from the region, especially if the US decides to attack Iran. What recourse do these Iraqi refugees have? They can't return home, and they are a burden on their host countries who are no longer accepting Iraqi refugees.

For all intents and purposes Jordan and Syria have closed their borders to Iraqi refugees. Their countries can no longer cope with the overflow or the financial burden of subsidizing the cost of the refugee crises, socially or economically. The Syrians say, "It costs us an extra $2 billion a year." Because they subsidize bread, gasoline, health care. And this huge Iraqi population is putting such pressure on their own social makeup. The Jordanians say it costs them an extra billion dollars a year. And the international response has been astonishingly weak. The Saudis gave-- a couple of tons of dates, dates-- to this population that needs schools and health care. And we have contributed some money but not nearly enough. And so both of these countries are at their wits' end.", said Deborah Amos in a recent interview on this tragic situation.

Deborah Amos who has covered many a refugee crises says this one is unusual, because the people affected are not poor and desparate, but are to the middle class. Their hearts are heavy with worry over seeking work, and an education for their children. Most of theh poor can't afford to leave Iraq. George Packard who is a writer for the New Yorker said this refugee situation has a different dimension than most, especially since it was the actions of the US, and the lack of success in stabilizing Iraq that has created a crises. He said he feels ashamed that the US State Department and officials from the Bagdad Embassy have given a paltry response when it comes to helping these refugees of the US occupation of Baghdad. It is hard to feel a swelling sense of pride in your country that has created this chaos, and then ignores it.

This hardly seems like the birth pangs that will foment democracy as the neocon intelligensia suggest. Now the US is put in a position of making deals with the devil, bribing the Saudi's with arms sales. Paul Wolfowitz grandly declared that we invaded Iraq to undercut the Saudi extremists, the Wahabi element. Now the US is left to making deals with them, because these people that promised a democratized Middle East, will be lucky if they can even deliver a stabilized Middle East.

And now the same people that put out these promises they can't deliver on, the Cheney's and the Wolfowitz's, are itching to invade the most secular country in the Middle East, Iran. The only country in the region that has had a truly grass roots movement speaking out for a democratic change. If we attack Iran it will set these young Iranian voices for democracy at least 30 years. Instead of picking up ballots to vote with the Iranians will be picking up guns to fight with. Where is the wisdom that?

This is pure insanity. The folks that wanted to create a capitalist free market in Iraq, have put Syria and Jordan in a position to pay the cost of housing refugees of war and are forced to use centralized government subsidies to help out with bread and gas or start digging mass graves. The Iranians are actually helping to rebuild the war torn cities in Iraq and provide much needed services, like construction, trash pick up, and hospitals.

This larger picture of the Middle East, a power vacuum, a refugee crises of mass proportions affecting middle class Iraqis, a lack of civil government in Iraq, soldiers both Iraqi and US forever traumatized by the sights of war, the enormous cost. And people are still thinking that attacking Iran is a good idea. If the US wasn't in Iraq, then the Iranians would not be using weapons against our soldiers.

This is the final failure of the Bush Project in the Middle East. We are now forced into real-politik, bribing regimes we don't like just to provide a semblance of security. And they are still talking about attacking Iran.

Picking up ballots to vote in a democracy was the dream, picking up guns to fight for their lives is the reality.

President Bush's foreign policy has betrayed every principle that it was supposed to stand for. And they still speak of attacking Iran.