Dude! Where’s My Ethnic Cleansing and Massive Refugee Flows!
Nadezhda finds a very useful map showing the state of ethnic cleansing in Baghdad’s neighborhoods. The entry also links to articles on refugee flows suggesting that close to 10% of Iraq’s population is currently displaced. I still read bland statements on conservative sites that Iraq can’t be in a civil war because we’re “not seeing a massive refugee problem.” That may be because “we’re” not looking.
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Comment by wade —
December 15, 2006 @ 8:22 am
Define “massive”… i’ve heard some numbers in news reports – like 2000 (iraqis crossing the border to Syria every day), like 100,000 (total refugees every month) or 2,000,000 (iraqis entered Syria, Jordan and Lebanon since 2003)… maybe these numbers just aren’t big enough, they may be dwarfed when we get the regional conflagration which we so richly deserve.. we should keep words like “massive” for when the shit really hits the fan.
Comment by Alex —
December 15, 2006 @ 9:48 am
Also check out Nibras Kazimi in the comments, claiming that you’re not a refugee if you’re not living in a tent.
Comment by Barry —
December 15, 2006 @ 11:03 am
No matter how bad things get, there’s always somebody to suggest that they’re not really bad.
Comment by Eric Martin —
December 15, 2006 @ 11:31 am
Ha. Score one for Henley in the Thirty Years War of blog titles.
Comment by Hesiod —
December 15, 2006 @ 1:03 pm
Fareed Zakaria said on (gulp) The Daily Show earlier this week that nearly 2 million Iraqis have fled the country.
So, that study showing that people gain as much news information watching the Daily Show as watching NBC Nightly News appears to be correct, at least based upon this anecdote.
Comment by Hesiod —
December 15, 2006 @ 1:06 pm
Ha. Score one for Henley in the Thirty Years War of blog titles.
Sorry. But nothing beats the headline I crafted for a story about an Albanian couple who were spotted having sex in the middle of a road near the capital of their homelad:
“Tirana Sore Ass.”
And, an enterprising commenter suggested that if rubbernecking motorists became involved in a traffic accident, the title could have been “Tirana Sore Ass –Wrecks.”
I dare anyone to beat that.
Comment by Eric Martin —
December 15, 2006 @ 2:16 pm
Wow. That is some serious blog title kung fu. Back to the shaolin temple for me.
Comment by Happy Jack —
December 16, 2006 @ 1:30 am
I dare anyone to beat that.
It might be a matter of judgement, but Success Has a Thousand Fathers, Failure Just Has These Bastards still brings a smile to my face.