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Reject the UN

While good news from Iraq should never be overlooked with the MSM tendency to focus on the bad, overstating the good news would be counterproductive at the least. With the uber liberal left totally invested in defeat at every turn and sporting their surrender monkey mascot, the stunning success of the troop surge in Iraq was enough evidence for the media to begin covering positive stories about Iraq but that is not the case with White Flag Harry Reid and his sidekick No Way Nancy.

Enter the much criticized United Nations. They may have published accurate figures on some of the stats of returning Iraqis based on a comparison with the following report from Alsumaria TV.

Hundreds of Iraqi displaced return home
Friday, November 23, 2007 10:36 GMT
Encouraged by the reduction of violence in Baghdad, hundreds of Iraqi citizens returned to their hometown, in a moving scene that had refugees shed tears as they got back together with their families and relatives.
Displaced Minister Abdul Samad Sultan confirmed that thousands of people have returned to Iraq while many of them owned houses which were taken while they were gone. In this context, Sultan explained that the Ministry is coordinating with Iraqi-US security operations commanders in Baghdad to help returning displaced regain their homes. Yet, international rescue organizations noted that the number of displaced inside Iraq exceeds the number of returning citizens.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Finances Minister Bayan Jaber Sulag arrived to Damascus in a visit aimed to offer a $ 52 million aid to Syria in support to its efforts of caring for hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees on its territory.

But the UN can’t be expected to be on the same page with others on all information and they have a knack for overstating the obvious. Besides numbers on returning Iraqis, the UN states Iraq offered $15 million to Syria as financial assistance for dealing with refugees. The report above puts the number at $52 million. But then the UN is not known for their ability to handle money properly. They also warn that encouraging Iraqis to return home is a bad idea since the region is still not stable enough. Do you suppose the Iraqis are capable of making that distinction on their own? Who should know better how things are going? A group that left Iraq at the first sign of trouble or citizens thoroughly invested in the future of Iraq? And of course the UN makes the case that Iraqis are returning because of visa requirements in refugee host countries like Syria and because they are running out of money. They reject the notion that any are returning due to the improved security conditions. Certainly violence is not a thing of the past in Iraq but drawing conclusions about anything in the region is a risky proposition.

UN refugee agency warns against return to Iraq
Fri Nov 23, 9:54 AM ET

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees “does not believe that the time has come to promote, organise or encourage returns” given the volatile and unpredictable security situation in Iraq, spokeswoman Jennifer Pagonis told journalists.

“Presently, there is no sign of any large-scale return to Iraq,” she added.

Iraq said earlier this week that it will offer Syria 15 million dollars (10 million euros) to help pay the costs of sheltering refugees.

Then there is the estimate in general of people displaced as a result of violence in Iraq. Some reports say about 2 million Iraqis are displaced while others have the number at 4 million. This might be explained by not separating internal from external displacements.

The number of internally displaced people, or IDPs, in Iraq grew by 16 percent in September - to 2,299,425, the Red Crescent said. That figure has skyrocketed since the beginning of 2007, when less than half a million people were listed as displaced.

The following report from the BBC reflects the most common report on the numbers but there are plenty of others out there.

Iraq’s ministry of migration told the BBC about 1,000 people were returning every day.

The UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR, estimates about 45,000 Iraqis returned from Syria in October - the first month of the school year.

WHERE IRAQIS HAVE FLED TO
Syria: 1,400,000
Jordan: 750,000
Gulf states: 200,000
Egypt: 100,000
Iran: 54,000
Lebanon: 40,000
Turkey: 10,000
Internally displaced: At least 2,000,000
Source: UNHCR (October 2007)

Note that the BBC indicates Iraq’s ministry puts the number at 1,000 per day yet the UN estimates 45,000 during a one month period. And the UN supplied numbers on refugees to each country plus internal and external displacements seems to be inflated when compared to other reports. Since they just admitted their AIDS numbers were exaggerated it would not be unreasonable to suspect this is another math failure for the United Nations. Still, the most annoying part of the UN’s take on Iraq is that they have a take at all. It would be nice if there were a few issues and events in which they did not feel compelled to butt in. In other words, keep your opinions, suggestions and urgings to yourself from time to time. If for no other reason than to not be so predictable.

There are so many tasks that the United Nations fails at miserably it would be in their best interest and certainly ours if they would limit their involvement in world affairs to focus on a handful of items in an effort to improve their performance. Rather than take on all the world’s problems their own Millennium Development Goals failures should be adequate proof they need to reduce their workload. Please, take this hint. Scale it back to maybe one project per year. If you can successfully complete one, then the following year try two, and so on.

The United Nations performance does not indicate they should be giving advice to anyone. And that certainly includes the Iraqis. These people have suffered enough and they are entitled to make their won decisions without unnecessary interference from the UN.

In conclusion, it may be fair to state that hundreds of Iraqis are returning to Iraq. The rate may be as high as 1,000 or so per month. The total number of persons displaced may be 4 million. And the US military troop surge has made it possible for people to consider returning. It is likely they understand that the risks of violence still exist but the situation is much improved. More people speaking on Iraq could express the good news rather than focusing on the obvious and typical darker sides of war. That can help bring this to a speedier conclusion.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 25th, 2007 at 11:07 am and is filed under Terrorism, Iraq, war, wordpress, News Media, U.N., United States. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.