Forgotten Friends and a Failure of American Bureaucracy

The American government’s relationship with individual allies overseas – whether in war or peace – is a long and controversial one. 40 years ago, the pressing refugee crisis of our time involved those seeking to resettle after the fall of Saigon. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, refugees from the embroiled nation came to the forefront of national news, but have faded since the U.S. withdrawal. At the present moment,  the most pressing global refugee crisis concerns those fleeing the Syrian civil war who continue to pour into Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

The sacrifices, however, of those Iraqis and Afghans who assisted the American war effort in the 2000s cannot be understated. To aid the Americans often meant to face the threat of death (and still does), and the State Department, together with other sectors of the U.S. government, has altogether refused to face the facts of the problem. Legislation has been altogether incompetent, and too many Iraqis and Afghans still face danger day in and day out because of their ties to occupation forces.

Kirk Johnson is a former USAID worker who was embedded in Fallujah in 2005. It was there that he met Iraqi interpreters and those in other roles who were aiding the U.S. war and development effort. Upon his return to the United States in 2007, Mr. Johnson started the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies after he began hearing of the failure of Iraqis formerly engaged with the Americans to obtain visas or any sort of protection from their former employers. Mr. Johnson recently came to Brown to speak of his experiences in Iraq, what it was like navigating the frustration that is the American bureaucratic machine, and his project that aims to help Iraqis in danger. He was as eloquent in person as he is in a This American Life interview from June of this year. Mr. Johnson is currently on tour promoting his book, To Be a Friend is Fatal.