DAMASCUS, Syria — It's difficult to stay composed listening to the stories of the million-plus Iraqi refugees who now live here. A teary-eyed father explains to me how his teenage son was nearly kidnapped from a school bus in Baghdad. The son's best friend was seized instead and never seen again. A young filmmaker smokes furiously while arranging a flight to Baghdad to find his missing mother.

Of course, some of those I've met in the region have returned home. Others, upon reachi ...

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