Justifiable moral outrage over the recent use of chemical weapons in Syria has brought the US government to the brink of military intervention in a now over two-year-old conflict as debates surrounding the wisdom of such a measure fill the American and global media. In this brief moment of humanitarian concern for Syria, we offer a sometimes forgotten story of another recent humanitarian crisis in the country, the ongoing saga of Iraqi refugees from the 2003 Iraq invasion, and trace its connections with the present.