A hugely underreported story out of Iraq is the plight of millions of faceless innocents fleeing their homes. They are guilty of no crime, and over the course of the disastrous liberation of their country, they have been robbed of their livelihood. Some have even worked for the United States. Despite the fact that the U.S. government has acknowledged that these refugees are our responsibility, so far, we’ve left them stranded.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 2 million people have relocated within Iraq, and another 2 million have left the country entirely, not knowing if they’ll ever return. Sixty thousand more are on the move every month.

Back in February, Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky said: “We have a responsibility to respond to the immediate needs of Iraqis who have fled violence and persecution. And the U.S. will provide leadership in meeting those needs.” Wouldn’t it be great if that were true? Because that same morning, the State Department said it expected to admit 3,500 Iraqi refugees by September. Barring the all-powerful helping hand of an intervening god, this is not going to happen.

In fact, numbers of Iraqis admitted into the U.S. has been downright dismal. Fifty-seven in July. Until last month, not even 100 total this year. Meanwhile, 1.2 million Iraqi refugees are living in Syria, 750,000 in Jordan and 20,000 have emigrated to Europe. Actually, with regards to what has become one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, other countries have accepted the lion’s share of Iraqi refugees while the U.S. has foundered.

The U.S. has done this before, most notably after the fall of Saigon in 1975 when it airlifted 125,000 Vietnamese refugees to bases in the Philippines and Guam; they were later resettled in refugee camps inside the U.S. What is happening today, then? Is our enterprise in Iraq so bungled that we cannot handle the refugee crisis? Is our mission truly for the good of the Iraqi people, or will we allow millions to be forced from their homes and flood the Middle East as they curse us by name and take up lives in lands we are supposedly befriending?