World: The Looming Crisis: Displacement and Security in Iraq

Lost in discussions of the military surge, the pace of troop drawdowns, and political benchmarks are millions of displaced Iraqi women, children, and men. Their plight is both a humanitarian tragedy and a strategic crisis that is not being addressed. The massive Iraqi displacement is like the proverbial elephant in the room: U.S. administration officials may acknowledge it as an important issue but lack a serious long-term plan to address the crisis. There is a risk that ignoring this humanitarian dimension will be yet another in a series of strategic blunders by the U.S. government with far-reaching political consequences. After all, the displacement of less than a million Palestinians from Israel in 1948 was initially seen as a temporary humanitarian problem, requiring temporary humanitarian solutions. Today it is hard to imagine the Middle East without the Palestinian diaspora. Present and future Iraqi displacement has the potential to change the Middle East landscape in unpredictably adverse ways. But if thoughtful policymakers-in the U.S. government, the U.N. system, and the non-governmental world-do not think strategically about Iraqi displacement, the implications for security in the region could be equally far-reaching.