The U.S. Betrayed Its Iraqi Allies

When England withdrew from the colonies, it gave its American allies safe harbor in Canada. When the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam, it airlifted 100,000 allies to safety, albeit months after the fall of Saigon. But with Iraq, the U.S. has abandoned thousands of interpreters, embassy workers, and subcontractors to retribution and assassination, says Kirk Johnson in The New York Times. “Moral timidity and a hapless bureaucracy have wedged our doors tightly shut and the Iraqis who remained loyal to us are weeks away from learning how little America’s word means.”