Displaced Refugees Stir Discontent

Since the tragedy of 9/11 , the war on terror has taken the United States into conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq. Throughout these conflicts the key questions on the minds of Americans are: Are we winning this war and are we implementing the policies that will help keep our nation safe in the future? These are critical questions. As a global superpower, the United States must be very careful, as our policies have significant global impacts, some of which are often overlooked.

Conducting research in Syria has drawn my attention to important regional issues where United States policy has failed to bring regional stability and which could potentially haunt us in the future. A specific example is the Iraqi refugee crisis, which has displaced about 2 million Iraqis, both Shia and Sunni, to Syria and Jordan. This is a critical issue in the Middle East today, particularly for the United States, because of our interest in creating stability and decreasing extremism in the region.

What continues to be overlooked by U.S. policy in the war on terror is the impact of political instability and poverty on extremism. The presence of these conditions in a society drives people to extreme political and religious ideologies, leading to terrorism, and the situation of the Iraqi refugees is creating these conditions.

Currently, Syria and Jordan are hosting the majority of the Iraqi refugees with about 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria alone and an additional 30,000 arriving each month. However, in the long run, these countries will not be able to sustain this massive influx of people.

The 1.5 million refugees, who have entered Syria since 2005, are equivalent to 8 percent of the Syrian population. In Syria, where goods and services are already limited, demand has significantly increased. There is high inflation in the real estate market and the health and education systems are severely strained.

With thousands of Iraqi children in Syrian schools, class sizes have doubled and yet many Iraqi children are not in school because of the lack of space. In addition, Iraqis in Syria are not permitted to work, which often forces them to take low wage jobs on black market. For example, many Iraqi young girls and women have resorted to prostitution and exotic dancing in nightclubs on the outskirts of Damascus.

Until now, the situation of the Iraqi refugees has not reached a critical state because of subsidies from the Syrian government, aid from the United Nations and because some Iraqis have been living on savings they brought with them. But how long can this last?

If Iraq is not stabilized and these refugees are not supported, what will become their fate without the basic necessities of education, healthcare and jobs? The United States has been forthcoming with aid and will take in as many as 7,000 refugees.

But there needs to be a long-term strategy to create stability that will allow the remaining millions of refugees to return home. We must ensure that our policies do not contribute to the creation of a potential breeding ground for terrorism in the future.

I spoke to an Iraqi in Damascus who told me stories of friends and family who thought they would only be in Syria for a few months but are still here because the situation in Iraq has deteriorated. They were forced to leave because of the violence and do not know when they will be able to return.

He also spoke of Iraqis in Syria who left everything behind, only to have their homes, cars and possessions taken over by others. Thus, some may have nothing to return to. While some Iraqi refugees view the United States as having brought them freedom, there are more who blame the United States for their condition.

Leaving millions of people displaced with a poor quality of life, the war in Iraq has increased anti-American sentiment among Iraqis and has the potential to encourage extremism against American interests.

It is true that some countries, including Syria, are not doing their best to stabilize Iraq. However, it was the lack of foresight in the Bush administration's policies that created these circumstances and weakened American influence over these countries.

Our policies in the Middle East should seek to bring comprehensive stability and improve America's image in the region. This can be done by supporting political solutions to solving conflicts and by having the vision to develop policy that will not create conditions that contradict our interests in eradicating terrorism and improving the quality of life of people in the developing world.