I have written before on the war in Iraq, so the topic is nothing new to myself or those who read this column. I have decried the waste in money and international good will, been saddened by the shattered lives of the families of the dead soldiers and become even angrier as the months pass by and we continue to learn the lies on which this war was based.
I wish, as an old conservative, that someone from the right would rise and take on George W. Bush in the GOP primaries. Unfortunately, it seems that the old right of the GOP has about as much power as Mike I after he was stuffed and mounted in the Natural History Museum.
The war that the president has gotten us in has now cost the United States 513 dead and billions of dollars to rebuild a country we invaded. Perhaps the most interesting unintended consequences of the war has been the fate of Iraqi Christians in the post-Saddam Hussein regime.
Once somewhat protected by the brutal Baathist regime, Iraq’s 750,000 Christians, a mere three percent of the population, have been facing increasingly hard times.
They are often seen as adjuncts to the Anglo-American “crusaders,” as well as spreaders of “immorality” and “vice” among the Moslem population. The former is due to the accident of shared faith among conqueror and conquered, while the latter deals with Iraqi Christians operating liquor stores and allowing their women to go unveiled.
The persecution of Christians is really nothing new to the Near East. According to William Dalrymple’s “From the Holy Mountain: A Journey Among the Christians of the Middle East.” Christianity, once the most widely followed faith of the Arab world, is slowly moving toward extinction.
This is due to a number of factors, including, but not limited to, persecution (the case of most of the Near East), genocide (see Turkey vs. the Armenians), emigration (the Palestinian Christians and Armenians) and conversion.
Now, I’m not one to really get too outraged by all of this. After all, the history of religion is one of bloodshed and horrific violence all in the name of God. That’s simply the nature of man.
My problem is that with our invasion of Iraq we released the genie of Islamic fundamentalism in the capitol of the old Caliphs at a time when the Arab world is on its knees
I find it ironic that the Christian fundamentalists, who provide if not the backbone of Bush’s support, really don’t seem to notice their persecuted brothers in the faith over in the Arab world.
Is it because they have been so indoctrinated with the image that all Arabs are Moslems, and by extension terrorists, or does it run deeper than that?
The fundamentalist rights’ school girl crush on Israel, which is all about their desire to see the so-called rapture and apocalypse and has little to do with any love for the Jews, but instead some muddled view that they can bring a faster return of Christ if they support an interventionist foreign policy in the Middle East, no matter what the cost to their fellow Christians.
Once again the United States has set up a situation that is worse than even the most pessimistic observers predicted. The war continues, the Shiites demand recognition and political power, the Sunnis are fighting to keep that power, and Iraq’s remaining Christians face a none too bright future.
Meanwhile, the death toll continues to rise.
What, then, is to be done? For one, we need some regime change at home. George W. Bush, who may well be remembered as the most destructive president since Lyndon Johnson, needs to be removed from office this November.
Two, in Iraq, the United States must transfer authority as fast as possible to the Iraqis themselves. Finally, we simply need to get out and return to a non-interventionist foreign policy. Returning to Washington’s advice on “peace with all, alliance with none” will go a long way to reduce the dangers to the United States, and is, Constitutionally, the right thing to do.
It’s too bad though, it will never happen. Some folks feel the need to speed up events that will only happen in God’s good time.
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