George Bush: the 0.005% - 0.18% Christian

AP Story:

The Bush administration plans to allow about 7,000 Iraqi refugees to settle in the United States over the next year, a huge expansion at a time of mounting international pressure to help millions who have fled their homes in the nearly four-year-old war.

According to the article, about 3.8 million refugees have been displaced. Jordan alone has taken in 700,000. And it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the ones who leave first are those most able to leave, i.e. people with a marketable skill or education who have means. So the doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, teachers and other professionals in general have all gone.

Who does that leave for us now? And just as important, who does that leave in Iraq? Clearly, the ones left in Iraq will be less able to handle a fledgling democracy and more likely to become terrorists.

At present, Bush has allowed 463 Iraqi refugees into America. That's 0.012%. His new proposal to allow 7,000 more will take that up to a still unimpressive 0.18%.

And he proposes spending $18 million, which is about 0.0047% of what he has spent on the war.

I can count on one hand the number of times I can defend Bush, but to be fair, there was really no way to come out ahead on the refugee matter. It would have been a bad idea to bring in refugees in the early stages or war because it was important to keep the educated people in Iraq to run the country. But now that they're mostly gone, there's little that can be done.

So crazy it might work: Instead of spending money to bring refugees here, let's spend money to send people there. Anyone in the world who meets certain qualifications (skilled laborers, degreed professionals, e.g.) and is crazy enough to go there can get a grant or guaranteed employment to set up shop in Iraq. This way they would know that they are working for themselves and taking ownership of the country instead of being a cog in the U.S. occupation machine. The idea needs to be refined but I just thought of it off the top of my head just now.