As Death Stalks Iraq, Middle-Class Exodus Begins

In the latest indication of the crushing hardship weighing on the lives of Iraqis, increasing portions of the middle class seem to be doing everything they can to leave the country. In the last 10 months, the state has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7 percent of the population and a quarter of the country's estimated middle class.

The impact can be seen in neighborhoods here. While much of the city bustles during daytime hours, the more war-torn areas, like in the south and in Ameriya, Ghazaliya, and Khadra in the west, are eerily empty at midday. On Mr. Bahjat's block in Dawra, only about 5 houses out of 40 remain occupied. Empty houses in the area are scrawled with the words "Omar Brigade," a Sunni group that kills Shiites.

"I don't want to leave Iraq. But I have to for the kids. They have seen enough."

"The past few months convinced us," said Mr. Kubba, a businessman whose wife is Sunni. "Now they are killing by ID's. The killing around Americans was something different, but the ID's, you can't move around on the streets."

"At the beginning we said, 'Let's wait, maybe it will be better tomorrow,' " Mr. Kubba said.

"Now I know it is time to go."

Mark, good post. I fled the democratic party when I was in my mid 20's, or to put it better, they left me. The quagmire that is now the democratic party is sad to see. I am pro life and could no longer in good conscience be part of a party that said it was okay that 4,000 babies were killed each day (even for the sake of choice). I cannot now be a party that says it was okay for 25 million people to be held in bondage in Iraq by saddam hussein. The republican party is for freedom, human rights, hope and an end to mass graves. Let the dems forge as many documents as they want. They even have 16 to 20 hurricanes they can blame on President Bush over the next few months. As long as the Republican party stands for freedom, ideas, life, lower taxes, smaller government, helping others so that they can help themselves, national security and hope, people will continue to flee the democratic party.

raker - I was just about to post that excerpt myself but you beat me to it!

Not much point arguing it though. Mark gets his facts on the Iraq situation from an optimistic conservative opinion piece. Unfortunately, to he and his cohorts, the NY Times is just a pessimistic liberal opinion piece - the whole thing, not just the editorial page - and part of the great MSM Bush-hating conspiracy. Since none of us are actually going to go to Iraq, we'll have to rely on our respective news outlets and call it a draw.

Consider this however: Iraqi government officials never leave the Green Zone. That speaks volumes about the living conditions in Iraq.

Yes, the Iraqis are returning home now that there is an absolute vacuum of power and they no longer need to worry about Saddam murdering them.

(Slanders against US military deleted)

Point is, "The Decider" has made a hell of a mess over there by ignoring the advice of his top generals and going with "Let's just wing it advice" from military-wannabe strategist Rumsfeld. Add that (deteled known lies) and you have an awful situation where you have 3 wanna-be-military civilians (deleted absurdity) making military desicions. No wonder its all gone to hell.

Kick Rumsfeld to the curb, allow a qualified and seasoned General to take his place that actually has been in battle and knows what he is doing and then you will have half a chance. Rumsfeld is exactly like Brownie in FEMA. Hes there because hes loyal to the president. A crony. Hes not qualified to direct traffic never mind the military and couldn't strategize himself out of the pentagon without asking for directions.

Then stop doing things on the cheap, (deleted known lie)...and a sufficient amount of troops to complete the mission.

Until you see that your government is aimlessly lost and way over there heads NOW, never mind them wanting to start another war with IRAN, the troops will just keep coming home in boxes and for what? So the Iraqi government can topple as soon as you leave and another Dictator moves in? In the very best of situations, what is the most you could ever hope to accomplish? Temporary freedom for the Iraqi people while you are there? Thats worth 3000 american lives, 20 000 wounded troops (deleted unsubstantiated numerical claim)...dead iraqis and spending 300 billion dollars that could instead be used to better the american way of life?

extra,

Ah, but the New York Times report has already been called into question...the NY Times claims about 1 million Iraqis in Jordan...Jordan says about 300,000 Iraqis, all of whom are not refugees, but there on vacation or business.

The NY Times is an exceptionally unreliable news source - the only one worse than it is Reuters.

Thanks for the Hat Tip Mark, I'm changing my channel to Fox right now!

James,"pro-life", does that mean your against the death penalty and war? Peace

Raker,

Fox isn't much better...my advice to those who want to know what is going on in Iraq is to read Iraq the Model and Centcom press releases...

Isn't Amer Tahiri the guy that cooked up the story that Iran passed a dress code law to identify religious minorities? Why yes, I believe he was.

By the way, while rather obnoxious by Western standards, the law makes no mention of requiring special attire by religious minorities.

Mark

To quote the 'great communicator' "Now there you go again"

Here's the link
http://www.kurdmedia.com/articles.asp?id=12415

Here's the lede
Across central Iraq, there is an exodus of people fleeing for their lives as sectarian assassins and death squads hunt them down. At ground level, Iraq is disintegrating as ethnic cleansing takes hold on a massive scale.

Now tell us again about how these people are re-populating the country.

-Joe

Thanks for the Hat Tip Mark, I'm changing my channel to Fox right now!

Thanks for the hat tip? raper, you're an idiot.

James,"pro-life", does that mean your against the death penalty and war? Peace

No, idiot, it means he's against idiots who don't know how to write. It's "you're," not "your," you pathetic waste of oxygen.

rico, are you a moderate one day, and a lefty the next?

Mark, why bother with these morons when it comes to Iraq?

Joe,

ROFL - Patrick Cockburn?!?!?!?! Do you know who he is?

I do...man, you might as well bring in Michael Moore as a source...he's a bit more credible than Patrick Cockburn...

keefer,

For the undecided lurkers...I do it for them...

Too bad Saddam doesn't have a blog, terrorist lovers like Joe could quote him then.

amen!!!!!!!!!!!

Steve, I am against the death penalty. We had to go to war against saddam hussein once and it was inevitable that we were going to have to go to war against him again. We did it at our choosing and not saddams, when he was stronger. I think it is beyond debate that saddam had russia, china and france in his back pocket and the sanctions were going to be lifted. Saddam was shooting at our planes on a daily basis, tried to assasinate american presidents, was training terorists to attack western targets. Sounds like he was already at war with us. We all look back at the 1930's and wonder why people didn't do anything to stop hitler a la chamberlein. Today, we see the shattering niavete of the modern liberal party and can now understand how 60 million people could have died in world war 2, how 1 million cambodians died in the 1970's, how 500,000 rwanadans died in the 1990's and how hundreds of thousands died in Iraq in the 1990's. Only to libs does death equal peace.

keefer asked, "rico, are you a moderate one day, and a lefty the next?"

I call them like I see them, keefer. I try to be objective, and to base my opinions on facts and logic rather than ideological talking points. And my opinion is that Mr. Taheri is sometimes a little fast and loose with the truth.

I'm not saying everything Mr. Taheri says with respect to Iraq is inaccurate. It's just very hard to tell what is and what isn't. He rattles off statistics like a machine gun, but he references only a few -- and then only generally. The statistics he mentions with regard to the IMF appear to be rather generous. For example, he claims that according to the IMF, Iraq's GDP rose to almost $90 billion in 2004. Brooking's Iraq index, which also quotes IMF figures, puts the number at 25.5 billion. In "real" (inflation adjusted) terms, that's a healthy 46.5% increase from the year before. But real GDP in 2003 dropped 41.4% from 2002. Taheri makes it sound like the growth in GDP in 2004 was astounding, but in fact they're about back to where they were before the war (which, given more than a decade of sanctions, sucked to begin with). Taheri also implied that the dramatic growth exhibited in 2004 was sustainable. Well in fact, the growth in real GDP in 2005 was 3.4%.

But that's still moving in the right direction. Things are by no means hopeless in Iraq. But I don't think they're as rosy as Taheri claims, either. The really big question is whether they are going to overcome their cultural and ethnic differences enough to avoid tearing the country apart. Central to that is getting their defense forces consolidated under national, rather than sectarian control. In another thread I asked if anyone could name the new Iraqi defense, interior, and national defense ministers are. No one responded. Well, the answer is... no one can name them. They haven't been selected yet. The new parliament can't agree on anyone to fill those exceedingly critical posts. And the reason they can't is the pervasive sectarian influences within the new government. Hopefully they will successfully resist those influences. But it doesn't appear to be certain at this point.

Ricorun

If I would have seen your question I would have answered. Thare is a minister for each and every position you brought up. It's the Prime Minister himself for now. In 10 days (9 days now, I think) that those positions will be filled with someone other than the Prime Minister himself.

So James, your(you are,you're) For war? Nothing is "inevitable" except death. What we on the Left are trying to do is prolong life. With the firepower that the countries of this earth possess we are all only one "keefer" away from mass annihlation. Peace

As usual, the story in Iraq is far more complicated than the Righties grasp, or even care to know.

Yes, there are many Iraqis returning to Iraq from long stays in refugee camps in Iran and Turkey, but there are as many or more fleeing Iraq for Jordan and Syria. The two main groups returning are Kurds in the north whose national aspirations were suppressed by Saddam (and are violently suppressed by the our allies the Turks as well) and Shia religious fundamentalists. Many in the latter category are returning to join the push for the establishment in Iraq of an Islamic republic closely allied with Shia dominated Iran.

So do you all really want to use the influx of Shia fundamentalists and radical clerics into Iraq as a sign of "success"? Are these the people who you want returning to Iraq in large numbers? And when Iraq ultimately becomes an Islamic Republic allied with Iran, will you be hailing that as a successful outcome of Bush's Iraq gamble?

Do you all even remember who the enemy is here? It wasn't secularist Iraq that attacked us on 9/11 - that heinous crime was the act of religious extremists. Note to wingnuts: it is religious extremism that is the enemy of human-kind. The influx of fundamentalists into Iraq is hardly a positive development.

Meanwhile, more secular middle and upper classes in Iraq are fleeing in droves. Approximately 1 million Iraqis have sought refuge in Jordan alone in the last couple years, and hundreds of thousands more are fleeing to Syria:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0605190122may19,1,7491757.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

I have many friends in Baghdad who want to leave as soon as possible - and these were people who opposed Saddam. They tell stories of daily kidnappings of Iraqi civilians that prevent most families from daring to even send their kids to school - another "little known Iraq fact", as you say, that the MSM never reports. The very next day that one of my closest friends - an Iraqi professor living in England - told me of the widespread kidnappings, her 13 year old nephew was abducted for a ransom of $100k, an impossible sum for her family to pay.

An article in Thursday's NYT entitled "As Death Stalks Iraq, Middle-Class Exodus Begins", paints a very different picture than your gleeful spin. Here's an excerpt:

"In the latest indication of the crushing hardships weighing on the lives of Iraqis, increasing portions of the middle class seem to be doing everything they can to leave the country. In the last 10 months, the state has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7 percent of the population and a quarter of the country's estimated middle class.

The school system offers another clue: Since 2004, the Ministry of Education has issued 39,554 letters permitting parents to take their children's academic records abroad. The number of such letters issued in 2005 was double that in 2004, according to the director of the ministry's examination department. Iraqi officials and international organizations put the number of Iraqis in Jordan at close to a million. Syrian cities also have growing Iraqi populations.

Since the bombing of a shrine in Samarra in February touched off a sectarian rampage, crime and killing have spread further through Iraqi society, paralyzing neighborhoods and smashing families. Now, on the brink of a new, permanent government, Iraqis are expressing the darkest view of their future in three years. "We're like sheep at a slaughter farm," said a businessman, who is arranging a move to Jordan. "We are just waiting for our time." The Samarra bombing produced a new kind of sectarian violence. Gangs of Shiites in Baghdad pulled Sunni Arabs out of houses and mosques and killed them in a spree that prompted retaliatory attacks and displaced 14,500 families in three months, according to the Ministry for Migration.

Most frightening, many middle-class Iraqis say, was how little the government did to stop the violence. That failure boded ominously for the future, leaving them feeling that the government was incapable of protecting them and more darkly, that perhaps it helped in the killing. Shiite-dominated government forces have been accused of carrying out sectarian killings."

So here's the synopsis: large numbers of secular, western-oriented, middle-class Iraqis are fleeing the country. Meanwhile, returning to Iraq are large numbers of Kurds, who mostly want independence from Iraq, and large numbers of fundamentalist Shia who want an Islamic theocracy. Remind again of how this is all supposed to be good news...

Link here for Chicago Trib article cited in my post above.

Link here for article in NYT cited above.

Oh boy, it's Aarontime, which means it's moron-time. Steve, you make no sense, but your annihilation would raise the median IQ of the left. Go jump in front of a train. Pieces--of Stevie-girl a;; over the tracks...