Here’s a long-overdue New Year’s resolution for America: bring back the draft to fight the war and keep the peace in Iraq . . . but only for able-bodied Iraqis already in the United States, especially those here based on asylum claims.

While the United States expends increasing amounts of blood and treasure to make Iraq safe for democracy (among other things), the federal immigration bureaucracy is also keeping a back-door open for able-bodied Iraqis to flee their native country and remain in the United States to pursue applications for asylum and adjustments of status in potentially unlimited numbers.

Here’s the problem: whether under an outright grant of refugee status, or simply under the pretense of filing for asylum, the federal government permits able-bodied Iraqi-born citizens to hide out in the United States while American soldiers are fighting and dying in their stead.

Has anyone in government thought this through yet?

One would assume that as part of "Operation Iraqi Freedom," the U.S. military would want to help find and train new recruits for the Iraqi National Guard or Iraqi police forces to help keep peace in the newly-liberated land.

So why not start with the fresh Iraqi recruits right in our own backyard?

Able-bodied Iraqi refugees and asylum applicants just so happen to have been born in Iraq. They would supposedly have an interest in the success of the new Iraqi government (much more so than the average American, at least). And they even speak the language!

So how about it, Mr. President? How about helping the morale of the American troops in Iraq by sending all able-bodied Iraqis—starting with current asylum-seekers and those previously granted asylum—out on the next plane to Baghdad to defend their homeland?

Amazingly, no one in the media has yet to report on the lesser-known counterpart to "Operation Iraqi Freedom"—that is, the ongoing "Operation Iraqi Asylum" in the United States.

So who in the federal government is granting asylum to Iraqi nationals in this time of unprecedented war waged for their liberation?

Read the full story -- posted in the Juan Mann Archive on VDARE.com -- 12/26/05 - Why Haven’t You Heard Of “Operation Iraqi Asylum”?