Our Misplaced Policies

As the economy has spiraled downward Americans have been faced with layoffs and home foreclosures as mortgage rates climb and businesses attempt to cut costs. Countless families and individuals have been forced from their homes and, as time marches forward, many more will experience the same fate, leaving many with feelings of hopelessness and despair. Along with the recent U.S. elections, the economy has taken the center stage of the news cycle, pushing coverage of most other issues to the back pages.

Despite the lack of coverage, there continues to be ongoing turmoil in Iraq. And while news agencies focus on the hardships facing so many Americans there is a similar yet much more desperate situation facing millions of Iraqis. In a country with a population one-tenth the size of the United States, there are now over five million displaced Iraqis. However, unlike in the United States these displaced Iraqis have not been forced from their homes because of predatory lending schemes or a job loss. Instead, they are leaving their homes because of violence and intimidation, knowing that the choice to stay puts them and their families lives at grave risk. Even as the violence in Iraq has decreased, Iraqis who thought it safe to return to their neighborhoods and homes have found that their assumptions of safety are wrong. As a few news agencies reported earlier this month, many of those returning have been forced to quickly leave again to avoid death threats from being carried out against them.

For millions of Iraqis displaced from their homes, the reality they face is desperately bleak, finding that the only places to take up residence are refugee camps in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, or squatter settlements throughout Iraq. In this situation it is common for displaced Iraqis in route to a safer resting place to be victimized by armed groups, having the few possessions that they still own taken. Once arriving at a destination life does not improve much as aid agencies are overwhelmed by the massive number of displaced, meaning there is limited access to food and safe drinking water. A lack of sanitation causes disease and illness to be widespread and violence, particularly against women, is common. Iraq’s neighbors, now overwhelmed by refugees, have begun to close their borders and in countries like Lebanon, Iraqis must live as outlaws, in constant fear of arrest, detention and deportation, which can be a death sentence for many.

Much like here in the United States, our government has done little to help the large number of people forced from their homes by the inept and misguided policies of U.S. officials. Instead of attempting to help people directly by calling for moratoriums on home foreclosures here in the U.S. or finding ways to fund aid agencies in dire need of monetary assistance in Iraq, the U.S. government has funneled billions into Wall Street and billions more into over priced contractors who are accused of fraud, waste and abuse of the money they have been given to reconstruct Iraq. These billions of dollars are spent as pain and despair rise throughout the world and peoples dignity fades away as they are forced from their homes, made to face a reality in which food, shelter and security may not be attainable. These are clear indications that the current priorities of U.S. policy, both here and abroad are severely misplaced and in dire need of reexamination and change.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future