Iraqi Refugees, America's Shame

Intentionally or not, the U.S. government has brought Iraq to its knees. The best and brightest are gone, and even if the violence quells, most will not return. The education and health care systems that were once the jewels of the Middle East are now in tatters, with most of the academics and doctors murdered or in exile. This fiercely proud people who gave the world its earliest civilizations have be reduced to beggars, waiting on food lines for handouts or selling their bodies to feed their children.

As I was leaving the UN food distribution center in Damascus, Layla Atiya, the widow with seven children, touched my arm. “Can you tell me one thing?,” she pleaded. “Why did America do this to us? What did we do to America to make her hate us so?”

I had no words to answer, only tears.

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