Op-Ed: Thanks To The Iraqi War Syria Has A Booming Sex Trade

Wealthy Middle Easterners looking for sex now travel to Syria for a cheap thrill. They have their choice of girls, some as young as 13 thanks to the Iraqi War. Syria has taken in 1.2 million refugees since George Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

With no legal work available an estimated 50,000 female Iraqi refugees are now prostitutes in Syria.

"70 percent to 80 percent of the girls working this business in Damascus today are Iraqis," 23-year-old Abeer told the New York Times. "The rents here in Syria are too expensive for their families. If they go back to Iraq they'll be slaughtered, and this is the only work available."

Because the United States invaded a country that posed no threat to the United States could George Bush and the country as a whole be blamed for these women's new jobs? Many citizen tribunals have already convicted President Bush for war crimes. What's one more crime on the list? These women fled to Syria as United States troops invaded their homeland. The war was too dangerous for them to stay in Iraq with husbands and fathers were dead. There was no protection in their homeland. The reality though in Syria was thousands of refugees and very little jobs for single women. Except for one. 50,000 Iraqi refugees have been forced into prostitution to survive. Legal work has been banned for those who became refugees as the war in Iraq forced them out. For many sex work is the only possible way to feed their families. It's a job where in one night they can earn about $60, the same as working in a factory......for a month. Some of the women working these clubs are as young as 13. Do they have a choice? It is often a trade off of morals and dignity to feed and house a family. Five years ago the war started. Not all the victims of this war live in Iraq. Not all the mourners live in the United States. Millions have no home. Millions have lost their dignity. And about 50,000 women now provide for their families on their back.