Saturday, May 19, 2007

State of Despair: Iraqi Refugees

Below is Part 1 of an excellent (and sad) documentary about Iraqi refugees in Jordan. An interview with a family of the Sabean religion, which predates Christianity, is particularly heartbreaking. I think these interviews corroborate what I have suspected all along: that the lives of Iraqis are being threatened by members and supporters of the former regime in order to make the lives of Iraqis as miserable as possible, and in order to extort money. Iraqis who have worked for Americans are especially vulnerable to kidnapping, torture, and murder. The people who commit these crimes could be Sunni or Shi'i (Shia militias are obviously responsible for attacks on Palestinians and other Sunni Arabs), I don't know, but they are clearly lawless and without morals. Part 2 and Part 3 deal with the Palestinian refugees from Iraq. In Part 3 Iraqis are asked if US troops should leave Iraq now. (Thanks Dad for sending me the link).

PS: The translation at 5:24 through 5:19 (Part 1) states that Abu Maher is saying that "We huddle together, eat at the same time, and sleep together for warmth so as to save on heating oil." He is actually saying "We huddle together, eat early and sleep early; we warm up our beds so that we don't have to turn on the heater so that we save on heating oil."

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