WASHINGTON POST: ANGELINA JOLIE STEALS SPOTLIGHT FROM GENERAL PETRAEUS AT EVENT ABOUT PLIGHT OF IRAQI CHILDREN REFUGEES

Maybe they should have brought in Angelina Jolie to the Senate chamber to give some spice to the otherwise same-o, same-o testimony of General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Tuesday about the status of the war in Iraq.

But Jolie was a few miles away appearing befrore a standing room only crowd at the Washington Club where she was on a panel sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations aimed at trying to find a solution for all the Iraqi children refugees.

The Day's Other Iraq Policy Event -- The One With the PaparazziAngelina Jolie Joins Discussion on the Plight of Refugee Children

By Robin WrightWashington Post Staff WriterWednesday, April 9, 2008; A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040802849.html?hpid=topnews

Angelina Jolie nearly stole the limelight from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker yesterday with her own remarks on Iraq at the Council on Foreign Relations, which had to move the standing-room-only event to the ballroom of the Washington Club to accommodate the crowd and television cameras. Paparazzi and gawkers swarmed outside.

The actress's appearance on a panel discussing the plight of more than 1 million Iraqi child refugees was less upbeat than that of the U.S. officials who testified before two Senate committees yesterday.

"This population we're talking about is the future of Iraq," said Jolie, who has traveled twice to Iraq over the past year, as well as to Syria to visit Iraqi refugees. "So to reach them now, to help deal with their trauma and refocus their minds on a possible future should absolutely be one of our top priorities. We need these kids. . . . We need them to rebuild their country, to stabilize their country and eventually lead their country."

Jolie also spoke directly to Petraeus's views on the war.

"Petraeus would agree that a surge does not just mean it works if you get numbers of violence down," she said. "It works if humanitarian aid is starting to increase and changes are able to be made. He knows that this is the time to start making some big changes and some big steps forward for the people."

Jolie gently scolded the Bush administration for its slow follow-through on absorbing Iraqi refugees. The United States took in 374 Iraqis in January, 444 in February and 751 in March -- in a year in which it has pledged to take in 12,000 Iraqi refugees, she noted.

The United States has taken in far fewer than many other countries. Germany has absorbed more than 36,200, Britain more than 22,000, while Syria has increased its population by more than 5 percent and Jordan by more than 10 percent from the influx of Iraqis.

Pressed on the impact of a decision on troop reductions on Iraqi refugees, Jolie joked, "I won't give my troop-withdrawal strategy."

Jolie co-chairs the new Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, along with Gene Sperling, a former Clinton administration economic adviser now at the Council on Foreign Relations. She appeared with Sperling, International Rescue Committee President George Rupp and Safaa el-Kogali of the World Bank. But attendees clearly came for Jolie.

James Gavrilis, who is on the Joint Chiefs staff at the Pentagon, said he would not have come by if not for Jolie. "I want to hear what her perspective is and how it's different from the military and masculine perspective," he said, quickly adding that, as an insider at the Pentagon, he already knew what Petraeus and Crocker would say in their testimony.

Click on link for full story and picture of Angelina Jolie at Washington Club event.