Iraqi Refugees in the United States

In the reading for this week, Gregory referred to the responsibilities that are conferred upon an occupying nation according to the Geneva Convention of 1949. The basic responsibilities include protecting the people and their property, and Gregory stresses the point that the U.S. has failed to do so since the initial incursion. I was interested in looking at asylum and immigration to the United States and whether or not it constitutes one of the obligations we have to the Iraqi people.

I found a few articles that report Iraqi refugees are being admitted in much higher numbers recently (2007,2008) than they were at the beginning of the war, with this LA Times article reporting that the target for 2008 was 17,000 refugees.

One article from the Chicago Tribune discusses the influx of Iraqi refugees to the Chicago area. I found it interesting that the article compared the trend in Iraqi immigration to the flow of Vietnamese refugees into Chicago 30-40 years ago. The article predicts that the Iraqi population in Chicago could increase to 30,000 or more. I felt like this statistic highlighted the fact that the current immigration policy is not a symbolic gesture or concession to Iraqis, but a significant step towards resettlement.

Gregory makes the reader aware (if they weren't already) that the U.S. has not typically heeded international advice or statue in this conflict, but I feel that the idea of responsibilities that accompany occupation are still relevant. Do you think that accepting refugees is one of the obligations of an occupying power? Is it another way of ensuring the protection of the Iraqi people, or is it simply an attempt to "make up" for the protection we failed to give in the first place?