Earl Blumenauer: “this last week I had the opportunity to meet a true American hero in Iraq, Kirk W. Johnson. No matter what your position…”

“this last week I had the opportunity to meet a true American hero in Iraq, Kirk W. Johnson. No matter what your position on the war in Iraq, how it started, where it's going, how it will end up, you should be deeply concerned by the 4 million Iraqis who have been forced to flee their homes. And you cannot help but be impressed by Mr. Johnson and his deep concern for their plight. This young Arabist, who worked for the USAID as regional coordinator on reconstruction in Fallujah--from, I might add, impeccable Republican lineage--figured prominently in George Packer's haunting essay in The New Yorker on March 26 of this year. That essay, entitled ``Betrayed: The Iraqis Who Trusted America the Most,'' had a profound impact on me. It is a harsh title, but the facts are harsh. In a country with a population about the size of Texas, 4 million Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes. Two million are currently outside the country, primarily in Jordan and Syria where there are jarring press accounts, for instance, of women forced into prostitution to feed their families in Syria. Mr. Johnson has been focusing on a special subset of these unfortunate people, people whose lives are at risk because they helped the United States, translators, guides, people who worked on the reconstruction effort. He has compiled a list of over 500 Iraqis that he knows personally are in that category.”