121. A Humanitarian Intervention
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| UNHCR staff member talks with an Iraqi refugee family in Syria Source: B. Heger / August 2007 |
Justifiable moral outrage over the recent use of chemical weapons in Syria has brought the US government to the brink of military intervention in a now over two-year-old conflict as debates surrounding the wisdom of such a measure fill the American and global media. In this brief moment of humanitarian concern for Syria, we offer a sometimes forgotten story of another recent humanitarian crisis in the country, the ongoing saga of Iraqi refugees from the 2003 Iraq invasion, and trace its connections with the present.
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Chris Gratien is a doctoral candidate at Georgetown University researching the social environmental history of the Ottoman Empire and the modern Middle East (see academia.edu)
USEFUL LINKS
UNHCR Country Operations:
Iraq
Syria
Jordan
Turkey
This American Life Ep. #499 entitled "Taking Names" (submitted by Sam Dolbee)
Iraq
Syria
Jordan
Turkey
This American Life Ep. #499 entitled "Taking Names" (submitted by Sam Dolbee)
From NPR website: "The truly incredible story of a guy named Kirk Johnson who started a list of hundreds of Iraqis who needed to get out of their country. They were getting death threats, and he was their only hope. Only 26 and living in his aunt's basement, he had no idea what to do. How Kirk kind of succeeded spectacularly and failed spectacularly at the same time." Click here to listen
A short video from the US Department of Defense about how awesome the missiles it will use in Syria are (submitted by Daniel Pontillo)