Middle class leaving Iraq
The Subtance
posted May 22, 2006 at 11:30 a.m.
Middle class leaving Iraq
Since destruction of Samarra shrine, many Iraqis are desperate to leave the country.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
A few months after reports indicated that Iraqi university professors and academics were fleeing the country because of violence and kidnappings, new media reports say that the middle class in Iraq also wants to leave.
The New York Times reported last week that more and more middle class Iraqis seem to be " doing everything they can to leave the country."
The reason for the exodus, the Times writes, is the wave of sectarian violence that has engulfed Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of the revered Shiite Askariya Shrine in Samarra. Most frightening for most Iraqis was the sense that their government was doing almost nothing to stop the fighting, and in fact may have helped, as soldiers from Shiite-dominated ministries have been accused of participated in the sectarian killings.
USA Today reports on how life after the temple bombing has become more dangerous for almost every Iraqi. According to US military figures, Iraqi casualties have jumped from 55 killed per day, to almost 80 per day since the Samarra incident. And while many still manage to go about their daily lives, for others the stress has become a burden.
An estimated one-fourth of Baghdad's adults are suffering from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, though only one-fifth of those seek treatment, says Aamir Hussein, a physician and deputy manager of Baghdad's Ibn Rushd Psychiatric Hospital. After the Samarra bombing, the number of psychiatric cases the hospital increased, Hussein says. At the Al-Jannan � "The Paradise" � clinic in central Baghdad, Baher Butti and a team of five therapists offer free counseling to poor patients and organize workshops and seminars.
Iraqis tend to be "psychologically withdrawn," retreating further into their families or leaving the country altogether when feeling pressure, Butti says. Butti himself plans to leave Iraq at the end of the month because he learned that his name appeared on a target list held by militias, he says. "The last few months have been increasingly traumatizing for Iraqis," he says. "It's out of the realm of human capability sometimes to adapt to this."
US and Iraqi forces have been trying to quell the sectarian violence. Last week, The Associated Press reported that US and Iraqi soldiers rescued seven Sunni men who had been kidnapped by members of a Shiite militia. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the spokesman for the US military in Baghdad, noted that attacks against civilians are up by 80 percent over the last six months.
"We acknowledge that the primary targets of the insurgency are the innocent men, women and children of Iraq," Lynch told reporters. He said attacks against civilians were aimed at enflaming sectarian hatred "and then folks like the militias, either Shiite militias or Sunni militias, are carrying out retaliatory attacks and killing innocent men, women and children."
Writing for The Independent of London, Patrick Cockburn reported Saturday that the sectarian fighting in Iraq now resembles what was happening in Bosnia in the '90s, when "each community fled to places where its members were a majority and were able to defend themselves."
Since the destruction of the mosque in Samarra sectarian warfare has broken out in every Iraqi city where there is a mixed population. In many cases the minority is too small to stand and fight. Sunnis have been fleeing Basra after a series of killings. Christians are being eliminated in Mosul in the north. Shias are being killed or driven out of cities and towns north of Baghdad such as Baquba or Samarra itself.
Fox News reported last week that humanitarian groups say hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled their homes since the invasion of 2003, and with a large spike in the past year. This had led some security experts to worry about the implications for the creation of a national Iraqi state in the long run. But Fox News also says US officials disputed Iraqi figures showing massive displacement, saying that people should not exaggerate the magnitude of the crisis, and that while there is an indication of some displaced persons inside Iraq, many people are moving for personal reasons.
Regardless of the reasons for the movement, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Sunni Arabs now fear the idea of a withdrawal of US troops that would leave a largely Shiite police force in its place, an idea that would have seemed "unthinkable" a year ago. The key factor in this change of attitude, writes the Chronicle, is the sectarian violence after the bombing of the shrine in Samarra.
A few months after reports indicated that Iraqi university professors and academics were fleeing the country because of violence and kidnappings, new media reports say that the middle class in Iraq also wants to leave. The New York Times reported last week that more and more middle class Iraqis seem to be " doing everything they can to leave the country."Terrorism & Security
The reason for the exodus, the Times writes, is the wave of sectarian violence that has engulfed Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of the revered Shiite Askariya Shrine in Samarra. Most frightening for most Iraqis was the sense that their government was doing almost nothing to stop the fighting, and in fact may have helped, as soldiers from Shiite-dominated ministries have been accused of participated in the sectarian killings.
posted May 22, 2006 at 11:30 a.m.
Middle class leaving Iraq
Since destruction of Samarra shrine, many Iraqis are desperate to leave the country.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
A few months after reports indicated that Iraqi university professors and academics were fleeing the country because of violence and kidnappings, new media reports say that the middle class in Iraq also wants to leave.
The New York Times reported last week that more and more middle class Iraqis seem to be " doing everything they can to leave the country."
In the last 10 months, the state has issued new passports to 1.85 million Iraqis, 7 percent of the population and a quarter of the country's estimated middle class. The school system offers another clue: Since 2004, the Ministry of Education has issued 39,554 letters permitting parents to take their children's academic records abroad. The number of such letters issued in 2005 was double that in 2004, according to the director of the ministry's examination department. Iraqi officials and international organizations put the number of Iraqis in Jordan at close to a million. Syrian cities also have growing Iraqi populations.
The reason for the exodus, the Times writes, is the wave of sectarian violence that has engulfed Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of the revered Shiite Askariya Shrine in Samarra. Most frightening for most Iraqis was the sense that their government was doing almost nothing to stop the fighting, and in fact may have helped, as soldiers from Shiite-dominated ministries have been accused of participated in the sectarian killings.
USA Today reports on how life after the temple bombing has become more dangerous for almost every Iraqi. According to US military figures, Iraqi casualties have jumped from 55 killed per day, to almost 80 per day since the Samarra incident. And while many still manage to go about their daily lives, for others the stress has become a burden.
An estimated one-fourth of Baghdad's adults are suffering from some form of post-traumatic stress disorder, though only one-fifth of those seek treatment, says Aamir Hussein, a physician and deputy manager of Baghdad's Ibn Rushd Psychiatric Hospital. After the Samarra bombing, the number of psychiatric cases the hospital increased, Hussein says. At the Al-Jannan � "The Paradise" � clinic in central Baghdad, Baher Butti and a team of five therapists offer free counseling to poor patients and organize workshops and seminars.
Iraqis tend to be "psychologically withdrawn," retreating further into their families or leaving the country altogether when feeling pressure, Butti says. Butti himself plans to leave Iraq at the end of the month because he learned that his name appeared on a target list held by militias, he says. "The last few months have been increasingly traumatizing for Iraqis," he says. "It's out of the realm of human capability sometimes to adapt to this."
US and Iraqi forces have been trying to quell the sectarian violence. Last week, The Associated Press reported that US and Iraqi soldiers rescued seven Sunni men who had been kidnapped by members of a Shiite militia. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, the spokesman for the US military in Baghdad, noted that attacks against civilians are up by 80 percent over the last six months.
"We acknowledge that the primary targets of the insurgency are the innocent men, women and children of Iraq," Lynch told reporters. He said attacks against civilians were aimed at enflaming sectarian hatred "and then folks like the militias, either Shiite militias or Sunni militias, are carrying out retaliatory attacks and killing innocent men, women and children."
Writing for The Independent of London, Patrick Cockburn reported Saturday that the sectarian fighting in Iraq now resembles what was happening in Bosnia in the '90s, when "each community fled to places where its members were a majority and were able to defend themselves."
Since the destruction of the mosque in Samarra sectarian warfare has broken out in every Iraqi city where there is a mixed population. In many cases the minority is too small to stand and fight. Sunnis have been fleeing Basra after a series of killings. Christians are being eliminated in Mosul in the north. Shias are being killed or driven out of cities and towns north of Baghdad such as Baquba or Samarra itself.
Fox News reported last week that humanitarian groups say hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have fled their homes since the invasion of 2003, and with a large spike in the past year. This had led some security experts to worry about the implications for the creation of a national Iraqi state in the long run. But Fox News also says US officials disputed Iraqi figures showing massive displacement, saying that people should not exaggerate the magnitude of the crisis, and that while there is an indication of some displaced persons inside Iraq, many people are moving for personal reasons.
Regardless of the reasons for the movement, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that Sunni Arabs now fear the idea of a withdrawal of US troops that would leave a largely Shiite police force in its place, an idea that would have seemed "unthinkable" a year ago. The key factor in this change of attitude, writes the Chronicle, is the sectarian violence after the bombing of the shrine in Samarra.
posted by JimG at 1:07 PM
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