While cognizant of the fact that the United States has spent much of the past 25 years engaged in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, some statistics I came across today about population migration left me dumbstruck.

The United States has had troops in and around Iraq since the early 1990s when I was still wearing the uniform of an Air Force officer.  Since then, we’ve rid the country of an evil dictator and brought about something akin to democratic rule.  As a result, one might think the good ol’ USA a top choice among the 1.5 million Iraqi emigrants.

But it’s not.  Instead, Iran is the top migrant destination of Iraqis — 379,356 in fact!

Not far away, the U.S. has had troops in Afghanistan in a big way since just after Sept. 11, 2001.  Almost a dozen years!  During that time, we’ve purportedly made inroads toward ridding the country of evil Taliban fighters who oppress the Afghan citizenry.  As a result, one might think the good ol’ USA might be a top destination of Afghans opting to leave their war-torn country for better lives.

Wrong again.  The leading designation of Afghan emigrants is, once again, Iran — to the tune of 1.7 million choosing to live there!

Makes one wonder if, by choosing to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan, we ended up strengthening Iran instead.

Just a thought as we enter another weekend.