What else can you say to this:
The United States accepted only some 450 Iraqi refugees in October, well short of the Bush administration’s stated goal of 1,000 a month.
The figure also marks a decline from September, when 889 refugees were admitted. Iraq’s neighbors have been overwhelmed by a flood of more than 2 million Iraqi refugees fleeing the violence in the wake of the 2003 U.S. invasion. After being criticized for failing to accept the country’s proper share of refugees, the Bush administration vowed that the United States would accept 12,000 Iraqi refugees in fiscal 2008 (out of a total of 80,000 refugees Washington plans to admit).
Disgraceful. Guess I figured out something else to say.
Delia
Well, golly gee, I guess the surge is just going along so swimmingly now that there’s just no need for refugees or anything nasty like that.
I mean, Karen Hughes fixed everything up just fine in the PR department, didn’t she? So we don’t have to worry about those reality-based types anymore, who might imply nasty things like we should be taking care of people whose homes and families we’ve blown to bits, especially when we’re afraid of their religion. Anyhow, Karen’s gone back to Texas now that everything is wonderful.
Keith
To quote Al Jourgenson: “Lies, lies, lies, lies, lieslieslies”
Elvis Elvisberg
The goal of 1,000 is disgraceful.
Failing to achieve even that…
ConservativelyLiberal
Remember people, they are brown and of the wrong religion. When it comes to ‘those people’, the right only pays them lip service. I bet the snafu will be blamed on someone other than who is responsible for it. After all, that is the hallmark of this administration.
The buck stops when it lines our our campaign contributors pockets. Personal responsibility? What a quaint old concept.
Helping the Iraqis costs money, and if the money ain’t going to their right wing buddies, it ain’t going in the right direction.
TenguPhule
I believe the precise wording is considered a threat to national security because Herr Bush can’t perform the anatomically impossible actions described.
Pb
And you know why that is, right…
Jess
It’s deeply wrong, of course, but I can also see why we might not want a bunch of piss-off Iraqis whose country we just destroyed to end up on our doorstep. Talk about chickens coming home to roost…
Jess
piss-off = pissed-off. I need to get some sleep one of these nights…
ConservativelyLiberal
Yup, and if one of the Iraqis ‘blows up’, so to say, then shit will rain on the right over it.
Kinda adds up, right?
Nancy Irving
Even 12k per year is laughable. Our “fair share”? We *created* this crisis, our “share” is 100% of Iraqi refugees.
Bush will burn in hell, if there is a hell.
dslak
We could always prosecute him for something here and now, just in case.
Media Glutton
Not only do we not accept 1,000 Iraqis but we alienate 12 MILLION PEOPLE who are in our country right now! Who are hard-working! Who risked their lives coming across a 100-mile desert to make a better life for their family!
Immigrant families in America = the enemy. How did this become the Republican position??
dutchmarbel
Kristoff compares this years figures upto september:
dutchmarbel
Sorry, forgot to link properly to Kristoff.
Wilfred
Minus any brown-skinned, Muslim motherfuckers, sure, but otherwise – America, fuck yeah!
jake
And WTF? Bush repeatedly calls Jordan & Syria terrorist havens and puppy stompers and all that mean nasty stuff (despite the fact they’re at least trying to help victims of our fuck up), so if an application does come through from either country it probably goes straight in the fucking shredder.
What am I saying? It probably goes straight in a fucking database labled “Terrist,” so the guy now has even less chance of getting the fuck out of that mess.
War crimes. Anyone who still hmms and haws about that is too fucking stupid for a mother’s tears.
cd6
I suspect this is because they’re finding it more difficult than expected to round up white skinned Iraqis.
libarbarian
I think Racism is less important than political calculations. Allowing them in would be an admission of failure and reduce the distance of the average american from the consequences of the war. Bush can’t alow that to happen
SDM
Rep. Earl Blumenauer has introduced a bill (HR 2265) to provide special immigration status to Iraqi refugees.
Svensker
No, no, you guys aren’t getting it. See, we let 1.5 million Iraqi refugees into Syria, then we bomb Syria, see? We get regime change against an Islamofascist yet secular state, AND we reduce the refugee problem. It’s so simple and obvious!
Gotta run. That incoming phone call is from Doug Feith and, good news!, I’m getting a job offer!
capelza
Good for Blumenauer…I’d take a family in…did it for Katrina.
You may be right…allowing the people in here would be an admission of failure.
The Vietnamese boat people…of course they had a hell of a time here, many of them when they did get here.
We do want to go screw up other people’s countries to “free” them..but having the resultant refugees right in our face…not so much.
Especially when we have villified their religion and way of life in our jingositic “America, Fuck yeah!”…they should just be grateful we got Saddam and suck up all that infrastructure and civil destruction.