Write: Make Your Voice Heard

One of the best ways to help our Iraqi allies is to write your elected representatives and local newspapers expressing your concern.  Below is a list of key points, a sample letter to a senator or congressperson, and a sample letter for a newspaper.  Note that these are only samples and you should feel free to write what you think and feel on this issue, especially when writing to a paper.  If you are interested in writing an op-ed for your local paper on the subject, please contact us and we can advise you.

Key points:

-  2.2 million Iraqis are displaced inside Iraq and another 2.2 are refugees.

-  Approximately 110,000 Iraqis have worked for the American government, contractors, or NGOS.

-  Our troops, contractors, and other workers would not have been able to function without the help of these Iraqi allies.

-  These Iraqi allies are branded by many of their countrymen as 'collaborators' and are now the most hunted class in Iraq.

-  This is not a partisan issue.  Important figures from both sides of the aisle have agreed that helping these Iraqis is a moral and national security imperative.

-  There is ample historical precedent for dramatic resettlement efforts during times of conflict, including of Iraqis in 1996.

-  The current bureaucratic bottlenecks are taking a major toll in human life: more of our Iraqi allies are killed every month.