The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) estimates that more than 40 percent of Iraq's professional class has left the country since late 2003, and it anticipates that more will follow. The Iraqi government has issued more than 2 million passports in the past 10 months.
    Of those who have left, the committee says, 350,000 are in Syria, 450,000 are in Jordan, and 90,000 are spread around the rest of the world.
    "Clearly, this has a serious impact," said Lavinia Limon, president of USCRI, a nonprofit, private organization that has been tracking refugee movements for 45 years. "No country can lose 40 percent of its professionals and not have a lasting negative impact on their economic and social progress."