U.S. Embassy: 670 Iraqis Approved for Permanent Resettlement in U.S.

Some things really irritate me. This story on Naharnet is one of them.

"The U.S. government is committed to resettling 12,000 of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees by September 30. The United States has accepted 7,789 Iraqi refugees for resettlement since 2007," the embassy said.

The statement added that since 2003, the U.S. government has been the largest contributor to programs assisting displaced Iraqis, funding programs for food, health, education, water, sanitation and emergency shelter.

Reminded me a little of something I studied in economics: Bastiat's broken window fallacy. The story goes that a little boy breaks a baker's store window, but the economic benefits and work this will subsequently create outweigh any wrongdoing on his part (glazier creating new glass window, glazier buying baker's bread, and so forth).

Well it seems the US is engaging in a little broken window fallacy too, and letting us know what a great service it is doing for the Iraqi people by being the "largest contributor to programs assisting displaced Iraqis." Sort of like someone taking a huge dump in your backyard and sending you the bill for cleaning it up in the mail, if you ask me.