The Effect of the War in Iraq on Jordan

Jordanians continuously ask me, "Why did you spend 5.7 billion dollars to kill people? What did it accomplish? Yes, Saddam is out of Iraq, but what is there now is even worse. Wouldn't it have been better to just put the money into education, health, and infrastructure?"

Don't worry my conservative friends and family, some people in the seminar responded with, "If we just gave the money to Saddam, he would have kept it." To which they have responded, "Would that be any worse than what there it is now? What have you gained by wasting this money? Their people are dead, your people are dead and now we are hurting too."


So here's the deal according to my Jordanian friends...

Iraqis are leaving Iraq. Saddam was bad, they say, but what is happening there now is even worse. 1,000,000 Iraqis have fled to Jordan since the US led invasion on Iraq, more are in Syria. And yet the US refuses to take in any of the refugees claiming that they aren't refugees. The US stance is that the people aren't leaving because of war, they are leaving on their own accord since Iraq is now a democracy. The Jordanian stance is that it doesn't matter what you label them, they are now in their country taxing it to the max.

Iraq was a secular nation. Not that Saddam was a good guy by any stretch of the imagination, but there was acceptance. Sunni and Shite Muslims, Assyrians, Sabians (also called Mandaeans- followers of John the Baptist. Similar to the Essines who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls), Davidics (who are followers of David), Yezidies (who worship all angels), Druezians (a hybrid of Judaism and Islam), and a myriad of others all lived in Iraq. But under the new government they are being killed by the thousands. No longer feeling like they have a home in Iraq, and fearing for their safety, they are leaving. They enter Jordan and Syria because they believe they will be safe there, but neither country has the money to care for them. They may find safety, but they also find poverty and unemployment because the Jordanian and Syrian governments are unequipped to handle this mass exodus. Additionally each government is worried that there will be no place for these people to go and are petrified that without other options, the Iraqi refugees will stay in their countries and drain their health care, education, and economic systems.

There are people who are trying to help. They set up schools and health programs using funding from interested parties. Iraqi refugees themselves staff the schools and clinics, since before Saddam, Iraq had the highest level of literacy in the Arab world. Yet, the schools are often shut down by the Jordanian government. When you are mostly desert, have little water, no oil except for olive, and are poised to double your population by the year 2015, (because most of your population is under the age of 30, and the average family size is 4 children per family), the last thing you need is 1,000,000 Iraqi refugees staying around too long.

The war has other less tangible effects.

In Petra, the beautiful ancient Nabalean city carved out of sandstone Bedouins who make their money escorting tourists through the sites or selling them tea, coffee, and trinkets, complain that business is down 95%. They believe that the war has scared people away from visiting the Middle East.

Iran, by collapsing the Iraqi government we have opened it up to the Iranians who are exploiting the people and creating even more mistrust and violence among the peoples of the middle East.