The positive news coming out of Iraq is encouraging Iraqi refugees to return to their homes. An estimated 25,000 Iraqis have come back since mid-September and the Iraqi government is yelling, “King’s X! King’s X! King’s X!”
Ok, they didn’t really say that. That’s what my high school gym coach would say if he was running Iraq right now though:
“In reality, the ministry cannot absorb a return on that (large) scale,” Iraqi Migration Minister Abdul-Samad Rahman told a news conference. “If the influx is huge, then neither the ministry nor the entire government can handle it.”
At the same time, he appeared to take issue with U.S. and U.N. assertions that security remains too fragile for Iraqis to come home in big numbers.
“I am not trying to defend the government or lure Iraqi families to come back, but we must tell the truth: the security situation is 90 percent stable,” Rahman said. “The rate at which Iraqis are returning is not proportionate to the level of stability and security.”
A big problem is that people are returning to find squatters in their homes. Squatters of another sect, which I guess is a pretty big deal. I don’t entirely get it. If I came home and someone was living in my house, I just can’t see myself saying “Hey, you’re living in my house. That’s upsetting. What? You’re a LUTHERAN?! Get the shotgun!!”
Get the sheiks involved in this too. Get the local community members who have stayed in Iraq to help organize and calm the returning refugees. Get away from this mindset that everything has to be handled by the central government. Let the local folks handle it and report back to you. And calm down.
