Refugees International has a new report out on internally displaced people in Iraq. The upshot of this is that the Iraqi government and the US can't adequately provide services, assistance, and housing needed by these refugees. Instead "the vacuum ... is being filled by non-state actors." (report p2) Read that as "armed militias." Badr Brigade, Mahdi Army, Concerned Citizen Counsels, etc...
As a consequence, these groups are gaining loyalty and members. Meanwhile, the US can't plan for refugee assistance because that would be admitting that the problem is bad and could get dramatically worse. Republicans like to warn about all the horrible humanitarian disasters that could happen if we leave Iraq "prematurely." The problem is, there's never any discussion of the fact that those disasters could happen even if we stay there. It's simply not clear to me that our presence in Iraq is doing anything other than keeping the lid on the pressure cooker for a few months longer.
via Matt here.
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