Now, what's happened? In 1991, there were masses of refugees and displaced persons, fleeing out of the country. Are there this year? No. In 1991, what else occurred? There was a lot of collateral damage from the long air war. Our preference is, as a country, to have as little collateral damage as possible. In 1991, there was the period that went on for such a long time before the ground war started that ended up different this time, to be sure, in a way that General Franks decided could be avoided. And so we don't have the refugees, we don't have a humanitarian crisis.

Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003

Uprooted Iraqis Add to Woes of War-Torn Land
Authorities say the more than 100,000 people who fled sectarian strife are straining resources. U.S. officials dispute the extent of the problem.
By Borzou Daragahi, Times Staff Writer
June 2, 2006

KARBALA, Iraq — The Hotel Karbala has kept pace with Iraq's changing times. In its halcyon days, it housed Shiite Muslim tourists visiting the shrines of this southern Iraqi city. It later became a base for Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, and played host to foreign troops after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

But in a sign of the current troubles, the ramshackle two-story concrete building and its weed-strewn lot have become housing for more than 70 Shiite Muslim families who fled violence elsewhere in the country.

"We were driven from our houses when we were attacked by terrorists," said Ali Jaffar Hussein, 35, a formerly prosperous Shiite merchant who moved his family here from the religiously mixed city of Tall Afar, about 270 miles to the northwest, fearing attacks by Sunni Arab insurgents.

"Now, we don't know our destiny," he said. "The government is not capable of protecting us."