For every drop of oil, a refugee. (A New Era).(how conflict in Middle East serves U.S. interests)(Brief Article)

After September 11, more than a million Afghan refugees fled to Iran, Pakistan, or other bordering nations to escape U.S. retaliation. This refugee flow has deepened an already desperate humanitarian crisis, one that teaches far beyond Afghanistan's borders.

With 20 million displaced people and millions more in poverty, Western Asia is a region in desperate need of peace. However, peace is not something that these nations have been offered the opportunity to choose. The U.S. alone sent 40 billion dollars in weapons and military training to the region in the year 2000. These are the weapons that support virtually every war and ethnic conflict in the region, whether fought by Israel, Iraq, Iran, or the Taliban. Every one of these weapons sales has been approved or directly funded by the Pentagon or the State Department.

Providing the infrastructure for war and death in Western Asia seems contradictory to all-too-familiar presidential statements about the humanitarian nature of the Gulf War or the War ...