Salon: Iraqis' highway from hell

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/03/28/spiegel/

Iraqis' highway from hell

Daily, more than 1,000 Iraqis risk being kidnapped or murdered by militias to cross into Syria as refugees.

By Ulrike Putz


March 28, 2007 | TANF, Iraq-Syria Border -- NewsShe has a few more yards to go, but Adrar Salamah is already happy. "I'm so glad to see Syria," the young mother says. Her exhausted smile betrays the anxiety that her arrival in this bleak stretch of desert is finally letting go -- it's an unease that must have developed over years. "Finally I can feel free again," she says.

For thousands of Iraqis, Tanf, the name of the border crossing between Syria and Iraq, is synonymous with peace. Those who reach Tanf have completed the hellish 340-mile journey from Baghdad and almost reached the safety of Syria. Many, like Salamah, will spend hours waiting patiently to get their passports stamped.

Up to 2 million Iraqis have fled their homes since the beginning of the war just over four years ago, most of them escaping over land. And ever since Jordan effectively closed its border at the beginning of this year, Syria has become the No. 1 destination for the refugees. Far more than 1,000 of them reach Tanf every day, "all of them exhausted and tired, with young children and elderly relatives in their car," says the border-control commander on duty.

Day after day, the refugees flock to his office. The friendly officer, who asks to remain anonymous, signs their pink visa application forms. "It doesn't really help to speed things up," he says of the formality. With thousands of people escaping from Iraq every day, processing applications takes time.

In order to manage the onslaught of refugees, applicants are required to wait outside before they're allowed to enter the building. Three officials verify and stamp the passports while one extends the documents out a window where hundreds stand waiting for their turn. Somewhere in this crowd, Salamah's driver waits for her passport and those of her son and parents.

"We've been waiting for this a long time," Salamah says. "Now we had the opportunity to leave, and we used it."

more...

and everything was settling into a nice, idyllic '50s paradise right in Baghdad.

Wouldn't it be nice if the war were over, then we wouldn't have to wait so long?

I know it hurts the more we talk about it.

Sometimes I feel we just can't live (!) without it...

Oh, wouldn't it be nice!

Maybe if (!) we think and wish an' hope an' pray it might come true...

Maybe then, there wouldn't be a single thing we couldn't do...

We could be Baghdadis... (We could be Baghdadi)

And then we'd be happy... (tell me who's your daddy)

Yes... Freedom is on the march! (to Syria)

...but to where??? We took in tens of thousands of refugees from Viet Nam. President Ford admitted that we had a responsibility here and DID THE RIGHT THING!

Meanwhile bushco turns their back. The administration claims that there are 7000 Iraqi citizen interpreters. These are also considered as traitors to Iraq by the "insurgents". ALL THEY DID WAS HELP AMERICANS. Now each is marked for death... will they be granted asylum here? We COULD do that you know... We took in over 100,000 refugees from all over the world last year...but less than a thousand from Iraq....and yet the very agency working on this issue admits it may be able to take in 700 Iraqi refugees PER YEAR!!!!

The Iraqi citizens who chose to help America are in dire peril and can not easily get refugee status here...WHY???? The official response is because they must be screened for purposes of homeland security. THEY WERE SCREENED ALREADY FOR THEIR JOBS IN THE FIRST DAMN PLACE!!! If the official reason for even being there is to help the citizens of Iraq...then why in the hell are we turning our backs on them???? The one and only conclusion I can come up with: BUSHCO DOES NOT GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE CITIZENS OF IRAQ!!!!
If that is the case, then why are we even over there?????

We here in DU know that this war is over a pack of lies yet many of our fellow Americans believe these very lies... ask any war supporter: Are we helping the citizens of Iraq and you already know what the response is. Yet the very citizen of Iraq who aided America the most and DESERVES OUR HELP THE MOST is being abandoned!!!

Is this possible? Are the Democrats being set up?
IS BUSHCO SETTING IRAQ UP FOR THE VERY BLOODBATH IT HAS WARNED US AGAINST SHOULD WE PULL OUT BEFORE THE "JOB" IS DONE???? Is the plan here to have the Democrats get stuck holding the bag on this one... WILL WE BE THE ONES WHO GET BLAMED allowing the repugs to be brought back to power. They will be able to say that they warned us about early pull out, they will blame us for the very nightmare they are currently setting up! Why else would bushco turn their backs on tens of thousands of Iraqi citizens whose only crime was in aiding America in toppling Saddam?

Regardless of what plans there may or may not be, regardless of partisanship, there is a humanitarian crises going on over in Iraq...one which is being all but ignored here in the DU...one which need not be ignored. We are progressives aren't we? Aren't we the ones who champion the downtrodden...aren't we about "fixing" the problems of our planet? Well here is a great big one...a great big problem caused by America. Seems to me it better be priority number 1!!!

and the band plays on.................................................

do i really need to add sarcasm here? :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry::cry:

Never to progress!

since they tell us that they are all coming back because it is so good...