(By Tim) Any Christian who believes the proper policy for the US to follow in Iraq is, "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!" needs to read this article by Peter BetBasoo brought to my attention by my friend, Dan Reuter...
Doug Bandow of the Cato Institute gives this summary of BetBasoo's conclusions:
Christian America may soon be the death of Iraqi Christians. Although Islam long has been in the ascendancy in Iraq, the so-called Assyrians, who speak a neo-Aramaic language, predate the rise of Islam. Today, however, the Iraqi Christian community faces possible extermination.
The irony is extraordinary: America, a nation with deep Christian roots, has inadvertently loosed the vicious forces bent on destroying Iraqi Christians. Persecuted by Islamic extremists and targeted for their frequent cooperation with occupation authorities, Christians have ever less hope in a nation that has fallen into violent chaos.
The Assyrian International News Agency has released a new report titled, "Incipient Genocide: The Ethnic Cleansing of the Assyrians of Iraq," written by Peter BetBasoo. It makes for dreadful reading.
Since the American invasion, several hundred Assyrians have been murdered. Even more have been kidnapped. Dozens of churches have been bombed or otherwise attacked.
Hundreds of Christian businesses have been torched because of the faith of their owners, wrecked for being non-Islamic (such as liquor stores) or ruined by criminal attacks and kidnappings. Christian women are being threatened and attacked for failing to follow Islamic law.
As sectarian violence has risen and the insurgency has surged, Christians have been targeted for retaliation. They long were despised by jihadists for their faith.
Then many Christians, who disproportionately spoke English, signed up to serve the U.S. military and occupation authorities. For them, the U.S. connection is a potential death sentence.
Yet Washington has done essentially nothing...
