Late last Thursday, the Senate unanimously approved an amendment to an upcoming defense bill called the “Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act,” in an attempt to repay our debt to Iraqis who have risked their lives by assisting US forces.

The amendment’s chief supporters, Senators Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Sam Brownback (R-Kan.), and Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.), represent a diverse range of liberal and conservative voices usually at odds with one another over the Iraq war. However, the mood surrounding this amendment was one of true bipartisanship.

At a press conference last week, I watched each of these leading Senators echo each other’s sentiments. They all emphasized that this initiative’s progress must not be impeded by political rivalries in Washington; the thousands of Iraqis working as interpreters and US government employees, now being systematically hunted down by militias for their loyalty to the US, must be protected.

The most moving portion of the conference came when a young Iraq war veteran, Lieutenant Joe Seemiller, told the story of his battalion’s Iraqi interpreter. This man continued to work for Miller’s battalion even after the country spiraled into sectarian chaos and he began receiving ever more constant death threats from militias for his cooperation with the US. Miller advised his loyal interpreter to flee several times, but the interpreter wouldn’t budge. Finally, he was forced to acknowledge the inescapable threats directed at himself and his family and fled to Syria. There, he is unable to find work or receive basic services, similar to the 1.5 million fellow Iraqi refugees in Syria.

The Senate seems to have heard Lieutenant Seemiller’s somber plea – and the pleas of many other Iraqi veterans -- last Wednesday and supported the Kennedy amendment. If this amendment enjoys similar support in the House, the number of Iraqi interpreters and U.S. government employees admitted into the US could jump to five thousand each year for the next five years. It is encouraging that our elected officials seem willing to increase our efforts to help Iraqi refugees. However, true progress for Iraqis will come when the U.S. and other countries begin to provide bilateral aid for the region. It is obvious that even with an increase in resettled Iraqi refugees, there will still be millions left in the region who wish to return home one day. While they wait, we should do our best to make sure that they are able to survive with some semblance of normalcy. Any strategy for Iraq must include planning for increased assistance to these people. We may not know how to end the war in Iraq, but we do know how to help refugees in need.

-Nicholas Winnie

Labels: Iraqi Refugees