The number of Iraqis fleeing their homes to escape sectarian violence has doubled in less than a month reflecting a sharp worsening of the security situation across the country.
About 11,000 families, or roughly 60,000 people, have now been forced from their homes, compared with just over 30,000 in late March, a government official said on Thursday.
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Some flee the country. Others buy weapons. But Iraqis lining up at a state registry say the best protection against sectarian violence is a new name.
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Picture this:
So far this month 60,000 people have left Iowa for Saskatchewan, in the largest diaspora from the state since sectarian violence began two years ago. At the same time, thousands are lining up at county courthouses, clamoring for name changes so they can appear to be members of the same sect as their neighbors. Gun shops have nearly been emptied of their wares, as people scramble for any protection they can find.
What relief, what protection, what semblance of democracy can we possibly bring to Iraq, when the populace fears so much for its survival that these things are happening?
Forget about civil war. The general population fears genocide. In his bestseller The Tipping Point, Malcolm Gladwell describes a wave of suicides in Micronesia, as an example of what we might call a sociological epidemic. Iraq is starting to look like the same thing. If this is true, we have a fraction of the manpower needed to reassure the populace, and even less of the goodwill.
It's long past time to leave. If the Neocons can't find any other way to do it, Helen Thomas supplied the solution here, back in 2003.