We bombed the country back to the stone age, then pranced around on carrier decks while waiting for the milk and honey (and oil) to begin flowing in the wake of our magnificant triumph. We owe these people something, and by "something" I mean "everything." We are responsible for their current predicament. And please, please don't give me that crap about saving them from Saddam and now they have to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. They don't have boots, let alone boots with straps.

We need to build refugee cities here in the United States and there in Iraq. We need to cooperate with Syria and Iran to assist the refugees who fled to those countries. Yes, you heard me right, cooperate with Syria and Iran. On their terms. Yes, it sucks, but that's what we've bought for ourselves with this little excursion into global dominance.

Once Iraq is rebuilt and stabilized, we need to send back the refugees who came to the United States. And I don't mean send them back to some tent city featuring a well and two electrical outlets for 500 people. I mean send them back to a decent country where they stand a chance of not dying by malnutrition or disease. Kinda what we promised them when we invaded, I think.

Would this require some sacrifice and expense on our part? Darn tootin' it would. Tough frijoles, my fellow Americans. We bought into this when we gave our dear president a blank check to do whatever he wanted to "faht terrism." The chickens are coming home to roost. Grin and bear it.

Arlington:

We bombed the country back to the stone age .....

Sorry.... Facts are facts. We destroyed their army, blew up their telephone exchange, government buildings and a few of Saddam's palaces. We did not target civilians, oil fields, dams, bridges or power plants. It turns out, however, that Saddam had built palaces and filled army depots with weapons instead of maintaining Iraq's infrastructure. This is well documented by UN and many foreign nations who offered billions in aid. They ARE in the stone age, but we did not bomb them into it. (Saddam DID fire LOTS of anti-aircraft guns and missiles at us during the first week of the war and much of those explosives ended up falling back on Iraq's citizens, but even this could not compare to 12 years of neglect.)

But we certainly don't have to "build refugee cities here". All we would have to do is give them airfare to Mexico. Each year at least 500,000 cross our Mexican border and find jobs in America with no government intervention!

Saddam buried hundreds of thousands of his own citizens in secret desert graveyards... millions of Muslims when you add in the Iranian and Kuwaiti citizens his army killed.

If humanitarian reasons justify bringing them over here now, why didn't Clinton "rescue" them back in the 1990's and Carter back in the 1980's? Reason: they need to fix their own country.... all we can do is kill off the dictators we (our fathers) put in power after WW-I and WW-II.

You guys are all smoking something - right? Bringing Iraquis to the US is absurd! There are already huge communities of them living in Detroit and SCal that have not assimilated. There are also huge groups of Afghanis and Iranians living here that do not want to be American. Most of the Christians from the middle east and Africa have already fled in the face of unimaginable persecution. Those who remain must build their countries on their own. Allowing the educated to flee is only compounding the problem. As for bombing the countries back into the stone age - no offense but much of the country was already in the stone age as Saddam and others have tried to wipe out the cultures such as Kurds and Bedouin.

Besides - look at how well the tolerance for all things Muslim has worked in Britain. If the Muslim leaders get their way all the nonMuslims will be forced out of England!

Iraqi refugees are not fleeing from American occupation. They're fleeing the rivalry war between the Sunnis and Shiites which is now starting to wain. As it has slowed down so has the mass exodus of refugees and many have even returned. I assume that any who wish to migrate here can proceed through normal and existing mechanisms. Most Iraqis look forward to living in their country under some quasi democratic leadership. In the long run I think Iraq will emerge as a bastion of freedom in that region which is something the local Arab autocratic nations did not want. But they were too inept to deal with the unruly folks in that region so too bad.

Scoot'r-d

* Iraqi refugees are not fleeing from American occupation.

-Who invited you, American Vampires? Oil suckers, sorry.

-Why do all your successive leaders then opt for hosting Palestinian Diaspora Refugees?

-Does it suit USA or your faithful ally, Israel?