It made perfect sense when we were in Iraq: send the Iraqi people away from their homes and communities to protect them from the violence we knew was coming.  Their homes would be destroyed. Whole neighborhoods could be gone. It made sense for them to move quickly – to pack what little they could get into their suitcases and trunks, and drive — or, more often walk…well, where? We were sending them “away.”  Where was “away?”

Did we give any thought to how or where they would go? Did we consider how or if those families would survive? We did not give their future much thought at the time, but these are the thoughts that plague our conscience now.

Here are some statistics – each one a window into tragedy after tragedy. Nearly five million Iraqi people we were sent to liberate are now displaced. Over two million of these men, women and children live as refugees in neighboring countries.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), this represents the highest percentage of people seeking asylum in the world. In their statistical snapshot, the total population of Iraqis in crisis both in and out of Iraq now totals more than 7.9 million.

Did we rescue them? Or did we save them from one desperate situation only to immerse them in an even more precarious, desperate situation? The statistics – each one a tragedy — tell the story.

Right now, approximately 750,000 Iraq refugees are trying to survive in Jordan.  It is against the law for them to work, so they either live on dwindling savings or are forced to subject themselves to the most exploitative, horrific and illegal work conditions, earning a fraction of what they could earn at home…all of this to barely survive and keep their children alive. Often forced into prostitution or other forms of crippling and even fatal types of labor, children have only recently been permitted to attend school in Iraq. The policy shift is insignificant at present, however, since schools are too small and teachers too few to absorb this overwhelming influx of high need, traumatized children of all ages.

Lack of basic education is matched only by the lack of medical care. In the rare cases where such care is available, Iraqi refugees can rarely afford it. Housing is extremely limited. Under these incalculable physical, emotional, psychological, financial, and spiritual stressors, these displaced Iraqi refugee families are exploding in violence against women and children, abandonment, and suicide.

Who are these men and women unraveling so tragically?  63 percent hold college degrees. They are men and women, sons and daughters, parents and professionals, respected leaders in their communities. They are the keys to Iraq’s future.  Iraq can enjoy no significant reconstruction without the talent, imagination and work of these highly educated men and women. Iraq can experience no sustainable security if it loses this present generation to violence, disease, displacement and lack of education.

If those refugees look toward home, and future with the reconstruction of their own country, what do they see? A highly unstable security situation lingering, with no end in site.  Should those same refugees look to other host countries, their legal status remains a constant concern and a hindrance to obtaining basic services.

How is this a problem for America? Why does the condition of nearly eight million displaced, highly educated Iraqis continue to plague our conscience now?

The answer is simple: The United States pledged its support to the Iraqi people, and sacrificed the lives and health of many US, Iraqi and other international service members to give it.

We believe the honorable thing to do is to follow through on our word, and that means helping refugees. While it is true that the US should grant asylum to a far greater number of applicants, resettlement is not the answer. The most significant help needed is aid: the kind of aid that only governments can provide.

We understand that the economic circumstances at home and abroad are tenuous at best. We urge our US government to fulfill its financial obligation to these innocent people, and take two simple steps: end the war at least two or three weeks early and redirect those funds to facilitate re-entry for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi citizens waiting to go home.

We are currently spending $500,000 a day to conduct our war in Iraq. That is what the US spent on Iraqi refugee needs over 5 years under the Bush administration.

The UNHCR warned in May 2008 that the money for refugees was running out quickly and that without assistance there would be no money left by August of 2008. High Commissioner António Guterres said, “We will not be able to help hundreds of thousands of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees and internally displaced if we do not receive funding for the remainder of 2008.” He added, “Without this support, the humanitarian crisis we have faced over the past two years may grow even larger.”

In his 2008 New York Times op-ed piece, then presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged $2 billion to the refugee crisis. Though that would be a good start, it falls seriously short of what is needed.

Thus far, President Obama and his administration have fallen even shorter than their original commitment. In a White House press release on August 14, 2009, only $346 million has been made available since April 2009.

Jordan and Syria estimate they have spent one billion per year hosting Iraq refugees.   The strain on the host countries national infrastructures has been pushed to the limits, demanding major investments in vital systems and careful attention to the needs of communities that feel destabilized by the influx of Iraqi refugees.

What do we think will happen if we continue to permit this humanitarian crisis to escalate?

Clearly, we did not think this through. It is not possible to make people or things go ‘away’ without knowing what we mean by “away.”  This war was our choice. These families did not ask to be moved; they did not choose to flee their communities with just their luggage and their children in tow; they did not literally walk away from their lives. They were driven from their lives by a decision we made.

If not out of compassion then certainly out of self-interest, we should help them walk back to their lives, and help them rebuild. Our record as a nation shows that we can do this when we have the will.

If we do not use earmarked foreign aid because it is the right thing to do, then we should use these funds to protect against the risk that three quarters of a million motivated and largely college-educated Iraqi adults and their new generation of children will be radicalized in their current, highly vulnerable state. It would behoove our great nation to help them see how much good we can do, instead of leaving them to know us only as the source of their displacement and their suffering.

Let’s help our displaced Iraqi friends find their way home.

Luis Carlos Montalván is a veteran of the U.S. Army and Shannon A. Rickey is a veteran of the U.S. Navy.  Both are co-founders of the Iraq Veterans’ Refugee Aid Association (IVRAA).