One of the many complications to invading and occupying other countries is that, once you leave, you’re apt to leave behind persons (sometimes called collaborators) who may or may not be in danger because of their former cooperation with you. You may also leave behind persons with something of a grudge against you.
A case in point is America’s 2003-2011 occupation of Iraq. In response to that episode, the late Senator Ted Kennedy sponsored and helped pass the “Direct Access” program, which put Iraqis who claimed to have aided the U.S. during the occupation on a fast-track for refugee resettlement in America.
Since Direct Access went into effect in 2007, over 40,000 applications have been received, covering more than 104,000 persons, the vast majority Iraqis. Beginning in February 2019, the State Department began investigating those applications and now believes at least 4,000 to be fraudulent. Of the more than 47,570 Iraqis already resettled in the United States through the program, more than 500 individuals have so far been implicated and could be stripped of their U.S. citizenship and deported. None of those individuals have as yet been identified as terrorists, though the State Department says it is open to changing their security vetting process in response to the investigation. The Direct Access program has been indefinitely suspended.
Curiously, lawmakers of both parties are currently lobbying the Biden administration to create a similar program for Afghanis in response to America’s decades-long adventure in that country. Given the track record of Direct Access, a State Department spokesman told Reuters that there are “a lot of reservations” about repeating Ted Kennedy’s mistake.
John Binder of Breitbart News reports that over the past 20 years, nearly one million refugees have been resettled in the U.S. Refugee resettlement costs taxpayers nearly $9 billion every five years, and each refugee will cost an estimated $133,000 over the course of his or her lifetime. And never mind the potential security threats caused by fast-tracking certain nationalities. Yet still the elective invasions and occupations continue, along with their unforeseen ramifications and never-ending costs, as we once again prove slow to learn from our mistakes, Ted Kennedy’s and otherwise.
For more, see Reuters.