This powerful blog piece by George Packer of The New Yorker is an absolute must-read. In it, he describes a State Department that attempts to obstruct Iraqi refugee legislation, makes promises it has no way of keeping to our Iraqi allies and falls short on promises already made. Perhaps most remarkably, he finds that military and State Department personnel who wish to act responsibly on this issue must turn to the press for help:
“…a desperate department official wrote to me, describing the sluggishness with which refugee applications in Syria and Jordan are being reviewed:
There is no excuse for this kind of mindless bureaucratic approach. I can’t find anyone here who seems to care that some of them seem to be on the verge of abandoning their cases. Know anyone who could do a one-page article somewhere to get the ball moving again?
So conscientious people on the inside have nowhere to turn but the press.”
Read the full article on Huffington Post, or Mr. Packer’s New Yorker Blog.