Think of the way the Vietnam War changed the cultural makeup of the Inland Northwest.

As Spokane County began welcoming hundreds of refugees to this region, we were enriched with new scholars, artists and entrepreneurs.

That migration began with astonishing speed. In just eight months during 1975, the U.S. State Department managed to bring more than 131,000 Vietnamese refugees to this country. And the impact continues to this day.

In 2006 the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that 1,623 people living in Spokane County identified themselves as Vietnamese, our second largest group of Asians.

We’ve yet to see a similar migration based on the present war.

Very few Iraqi refugees, regardless of how much they helped our military and how desperate their situation may be, have been allowed to move to the United States. And yet, since this war began, more than 2 million Iraqis have been displaced within their country and an estimated 2.2 million have fled Iraq.

Among the most desperate are the translators and the workers who have helped contractors build and run U.S. military bases. After working for the United States, they often must live in fear for their lives as targets for insurgents.

The State Department blamed post-Sept. 11 security concerns for bogging down the process of admitting Iraqi refugees to this country. And yet Iraqi translators have already undergone extensive security clearances. Many of them have worked in life-threatening conditions to help safeguard the lives of Americans. They have already earned our trust.

After the Vietnam War, leaders of this country believed we owed a moral debt to those who helped us, particularly officers of the South Vietnam military, as well as the Amerasian families of U.S. servicemen.

We owe a similar debt now. We must help Iraqi refugees who are struggling to survive in other countries and speed up the process for those applying to move to the United States. If we abandon them to live in resentment and desperation, we can not be surprised if they turn their sympathies to those who oppose us.

Fortunately, this is a message that recently has been voiced by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker in Baghdad and a bipartisan group in Congress and echoed by new pledges from the State Department.

Our president entered this war with the desire to “win the minds and hearts of the Iraqi people.” We can only do that by treating our Iraqi friends with fairness. That includes finding homes for the most deserving in cities across the United States – including here in the Inland Northwest.