since Riverbend last posted; the post was long and hopeful, about she and her family’s arrived in Syria as refugees from Iraq.

But since then, only silence.

From the Washington Post last week:

Damascus is the epicenter of the Middle East’s gravest humanitarian disaster since the Palestinian refugee crisis of 1948. …Unlike its neighbors, who have imposed strict visa requirements, Syria has done little to discourage the flow of migrants across its border and hosts an estimated 1.4 million Iraqis — almost two-thirds of the post-invasion diaspora. With no legal status or right to work, their prospects are bleak…

The countries best positioned to help are paralyzed by petty politics and legitimate alarm at the daunting scope of the problem and are allowing the crisis to fester. Much of the Middle East — including Jordan, which once welcomed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis — has now closed its borders, concerned that, like the Palestinians who 60 years ago fled what is now Israel, the Iraqis might never leave.

The United States, which is more responsible for the burgeoning humanitarian disaster than any other nation, has pledged $208 million — the equivalent of a rounding error in a war costing hundreds of millions a day. In 2008, Washington agreed to take in 12,000 Iraqis — just one-fifth the U.S. target for refugees from Bhutan. Sweden, which played no role in the Iraq invasion, has accepted 40,000 Iraqis since the war began, while the United States has resettled slightly more than 5,000.

Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised; in all his public speeches about the war, President Bush has virtually never mentioned Iraqi refugees. …Because of this inaction, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in Syria face the same, sad dilemma: protect their families as refugees outside Iraq or provide for them by returning.
…
Already, Iraqi women and girls are turning to prostitution and young boys to black-market labor. In Sayyida Zainab, a Damascus neighborhood whose main road has been dubbed ”Iraqis Street,” we met Tutu, 11, and his brother Baha, 13. They dropped out of their Syrian school two years ago to work for a bus company. ”It breaks my heart,” their mother, Bassaad, told us. “But it’s the only way I can get money.”
…
When he announced a massive relief and resettlement effort for Iraqi Kurds in 1991, the first President Bush called such a project part of the ”American tradition” to ”do everything in our power to save innocent life.” Today, his son’s near silence stands in stark contrast — fueled, it seems, by a desire to avoid acknowledging the implication that Iraq is still many years from stability.

When will we acknowledge the millions of lives we have damaged and destroyed?

Pelosi keeps impeachment off the table for petty political purposes while our victims in Iraq and among the refugee diaspora continue to suffer.

We can only protect our political aspirations by doing the right thing now. Weakness does not reach across the aisle; strength does. Democrats in Congress seem to remember that only when they’re the ones being asked to jump on board – as with the war.

This weakness only means they will laugh at you then whip you down harder next time.

Only we are not the ones who feel the whip’s sting.

And that is the problem.

In the meantime, Riverbend and her family will remain my thoughts.