World War 2 analogies are best used with caution, but one seems to recommend itself right now: where the Christians and other persecuted groups in Iraq are concerned, it really is 1938 again.
News reports about the plight of Iraqi religious minorities are occasional - perhaps understandably, considering how much bloodshed is occurring in Iraq on a daily basis. Still, what we do know is truly chilling. They are caught between two hostile sides and are associated with the United States. Assumed to be profiting from the presence of our troops, they are targeted by kidnappers.
Like the Jews of interwar Europe, the Christians of Iraq - along with other religious minorities - face a grim future. Like the Jews of Nazi Germany in 1938, around half of them have fled to neighboring countries. America is currently reluctant to admit them as a persecuted minority, when they are quite plainly one of the most endangered groups on Earth.
As Catholic.org states
Since the war in Iraq began in 2003, the Christian population has shrunk to less than half of the pre-war population from more than 1.2 million to a community of an estimated 600,000
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, which is a semi-independent voice within the government has, itself, called for granting asylum to persecuted groups within Iraq, naming groups such as Chaldean Christians, Yezidis, and Mandaeans. As the report states:
“The Commission urges Under Secretary Dobriansky to create new or expand existing options for allowing members of Iraq’s ChaldoAssyrian and Sabean Mandaean religious minority communities to access the U.S. refugee program, and to urge UNHCR to resume full refugee status determinations for all Iraqi asylum seekers and assess all claims without delay,” said USCIRF Chair Felice D. Gaer. “The United States has not made direct access to the U.S. Refugee Program available to Iraqi religious minorities, taking the position that ChaldoAssyrians and Sabean Mandaeans are subject to generalized violence in Iraq. This position is not supported by the facts.”
This is an issue for the new majority. The administration has dragged its heels, while people are being massacred and driven from their homes. Many have sought refuge in neighboring countries like Jordan, Syria, and Turkey - there is no guarantee that they will find longterm refuge in any of these countries.
Democrats should press the administration to offer asylum to Iraqi religious minorities. We have created the situation that imperils them, and they are unlikely to be accommodated by any partition arrangement in Iraq. Sunnis and Shiites will likely move to friendly areas, these peoples have no such options - and they are likely to fare poorly under either the rule of Sadr or the rule of the Sunni insurgents. Strong publicity and Congressional pressure could keep the doors open.
Republicans who talk about Munich ad nauseam should have to acknowledge that 1938 has another set of lessons: it is cynical and amoral to deny refuge to people facing genocide. However little we can do in Iraq, we can still do this much.