Christianity came to Iraq in the first century AD. The Christians of Iraq are believed to be one of the longest continuous Christian communities in the world. Throughout their long history in the region, Christians have been persecuted, threatened and massacred many times, but they have always managed to remain. Today however, the two thousand year old presence of Christians in Iraq is in danger of coming to an end. In 2003, before the invasion and occupation of Iraq by the United States and its allies, there was an estimated 1.5 million Christians in Iraq, about 5% of the population. Fewer than 400,000 are thought to remain today. In a single decade more than two thirds of Iraq’s Christians have fled the country. In recent years, the Christians of Iraq have been caught in the middle of what is essentially a civil war between the Shiite and Sunni Muslim majorities. Extremists on both sides view the Christians as sympathetic to the West and, as non-Muslims, unworthy to live in their Islamic fundamentalist vision of the country. As a result, Iraq’s Christian community has become a victim of an open and systematic campaign to cleanse the country of its religious minorities. The Christians who remain in Iraq have for the most part sought refuge in the historic heartland of Iraqi Christianity – the Nineveh Plain and parts of Kurdistan – in the north of the country. In the relative security of these areas the Christian communities have concentrated into pockets and attempt to preserve their culture, traditions and religious heritage despite the threats and their dwindling numbers. The seizure of Mosul and much of the Nineveh Plain by the Islamic State severely aggravated an already precarious situation, forcing many Christians to leave the country and to seek refuge in the United States, Canada, Sweden or Australia among other places.

The 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq by the U.S. and its allies killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, injured many more and devastated countless lives. Violence and sectarian strife have displaced 2 million Iraqis within the country and caused 2 million more to flee Iraq. At the height of the exodus in 2008, five years after the invasion, the United States had only accepted a few hundred Iraqi refugees. The scale of the Iraqi refugee crisis forced the U.S. government to change its policies and to begin facilitating the resettlement of Iraqi refugees who were threatened due to their association with the occupation. In the past five years, between 10,000 and 15,000 Iraqi refugees have been arriving annually in the United States to begin rebuilding their lives, however they are arriving during the worst economic crisis the U.S. has known in over 80 years. Resettlement benefits and assistance last a very short time and refugees soon find themselves competing for jobs and housing with millions of out-of-work Americans. Contrary to some refugee populations, the majority of Iraqi refugees are well-educated, middle class people who had a comfortable standard of living in Iraq despite the insecurity and violence. They struggle to adapt to American culture and to accept menial jobs to survive despite their skills and experience. Over the past few decades, Iraqis have and continue to suffer ineffable human tragedies. The United States has a moral obligation to assist those Iraqis who can no longer live in their country as a result of the American intervention.

In 1991 following decades of Cold War isolation and embargo, Soviet economies were crumbling and inflation was rampant making the cost of essential commodities and daily life untenable for average citizens in the Soviet Union. In an attempt to revive the Soviet economy, Mikhail Gorbachev’s Glasnost and Perestroika reform policies allowed Western brands and businesses such as McDonald’s and Lancôme (businesses that are now closing their operations) to begin operating in Russia. Many Russians flocked to the novelty of the Western brands, but few could actually afford to purchase Western commodities, spending most of their time waiting in bread lines and searching for inexpensive food items in street markets. The Soviet Union had reached a tipping point and the tentative reforms only opened a flood gate of popular desire for change, freedom and democracy. After an initial all-Soviet coal miner strike in July 1989, in early March 1991 coal miners in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine conducted a large-scale work stoppage, however this time they boldly demanded Gorbachev’s resignation, the dismantling of the Congress of People’s Deputies and the Supreme Soviet, and the transfer of mines and their assets to respective republican governments, recognizing that demands for wage increases or better working conditions would only be wiped out by inflation and meaningless without systemic change. At the end of that year, Ukrainians voted overwhelmingly (90%) for independence, effectively putting an end to all hopes that the Soviet Union could remain intact. Vladimir Putin is a product of this time period – the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has built his power on Russian nationalism and it is no secret that he has long had the ambition to establish a kind of Russian-centric empire among the former Soviet republics with himself as a tsar-like leader to counter the military, political and economic influence of NATO, the EU and the U.S. in the region and the world. This is, at least in part, why he was willing to invade Ukraine at all costs to prevent the country from pursuing closer ties with the West. Regardless of the war's outcome, Vladimir Putin’s colossal miscalculation will make him an international pariah and will once again isolate Russia from the rest of the world under crippling economic sanctions, much like the Russia of 1991.

On February 24th, 2022 Russia launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. Russian forces have systematically targeted civilians, civilian infrastructure and there is abundant evidence of wide-spread war crimes. The war has caused the largest displacement of people since World War II, with more than 12 million people forced to flee their homes, and had severe effects on economies, energy prices and food security across the globe. Vladimir Putin is a product of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. He has built his power on Russian nationalism and it is no secret that he has long had the ambition to establish a kind of Russian-centric empire among the former Soviet republics with himself as a tsar-like leader to counter the military, political and economic influence of NATO, the EU and the U.S. in the region and the world. This is, at least in part, why he was willing to invade Ukraine at all costs to prevent the country from pursuing closer ties with the West.