To a certain degree, the realities in Iran today were shaped by America’s misguided, interventionist regime change success there in helping to overthrow Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and installing Shah Reza Pahlavi.
What will the blowback from Iraq look like in the future? A new report from the Congressional Research Service gives us some idea of the depths of despair that many in Iraq are experiencing.
From Secrecy News, a project of the Federation of American Scientists:
“The humanitarian crisis many feared would take place in March 2003 as a result of the war in Iraq appears to be unfolding,” says a new report (pdf) from the Congressional Research Service.
“It is estimated that in total (including those displaced prior to the war) there may be two million Iraqi refugees who have fled to Jordan, Syria, and other neighboring states, and approximately two million Iraqis who have been displaced within Iraq itself.” See “Iraqi Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons: A Deepening Humanitarian Crisis?,” (pdf) March 23, 2007.
Another Congressional Research Service report provides a detailed examination of the pending defense supplemental appropriations bills, which include congressional direction on redeployment or withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. See “FY2007 Supplemental Appropriations for Defense, Foreign Affairs, and Other Purposes” (pdf), updated March 28, 2007.
We will be paying compounding costs for Iraq a long time.
It’s too bad we can’t figure out a way to make President Bush and his Rasputinesque Vice President Dick Cheney bear the burden and consequences of this for all time.
The fact is that others will have to clean up this terrible situation, and all of us will pay for it.
— Steve Clemons
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