Battleangel

Anders Lago, social democratic mayor of Södertälje, Sweden, testified before the U.S. congress on Thursday. Odd as it may seem. The topic and the reason for the invitation by the Helsinki Commission was the Iraqi refugee crisis. Particularly the uneven distribution of refugees and the selfish behavior of the world’s greatest powers - ironically the same powers that caused the crisis by destabilizing Iraq.

Last year alone, more than 18,000 Iraqi refugees came to Sweden. According to the State Department, the United States has taken in roughly 6,000 Iraqis in programs for refugees and translators.

"We are a small town in a small country. We didn’t start the war. It was the United States and Great Britain. They must now take the responsibility for the refugees."

Södertälje alone has accepted 6000 refugees. Not "translators" but actual refugees. I also noted one other noteworthy admission from the WAPO article.

For the Middle East, "it’s the greatest refugee catastrophe since 1948," the year Israel was born, said Tobias Billstrom, Sweden’s minister for migration.

Interesting admission coming from a politician on the right. Anyway, IHT notes that the actual number of refugees accepted by the U.S. is less than 5000.

Rep. Alcee Hastings, a Democrat, the commission’s chairman, noted that the United States has admitted less than 5,000 Iraqi refugees between April 2003 through the end of March while Sweden has accepted 34,000 since 2003.

"If Sweden can do 34,000, can’t we here in the United States do more?" Hastings asked.

To emphasize that point, the commission heard from Anders Lago, the mayor of Sodertalje, Sweden, who said his small city of about 80,000 was now home to nearly 6,000 Iraqis. "More refugees than the United States and Canada together," Lago said.

There are still reasonable people though.

On the eve of the hearing Lago met Democrat presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama, who said he was ashamed the US didn’t take more responsibility for solving the Iraqi refugee problem.

Of course, had America stepped up to the plate, tens of thousands of refugees would be pouring into the country. And immigration inevitable creates friction, forces people to ask questions. Like, if the U.S. is doing so great in Iraq and it’s basically mission accomplished, why would so many choose to leave their homeland, even today? I think this is a contributing factor as to why America is kept clinically clean of Iraqi refugees - for propaganda reasons.