For over two millennia Iraqi Christians have survived many dangers and threatening regimes until G.W. Bush, America’s "Born Again" Christian president, mounted unprovoked war on Iraq.
U. S. A. Today carried this news story: "Iraqi Christians are approaching their grimmest Christmas since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003." Conditions around Iraq have intensified and accelerated with intense danger for this ancient Christian enclave until "Iraqi churches cancel Christmas festivities."
http://www.usatoday.com/...
U.S.A. Today expands:
"Even before the Oct. 31 church attack, thousands of Christians were fleeing Iraq. They make up more than a third of the 53,700 Iraqis resettled in the United States since 2007, according to State Department statistics... "Since the church attack, some 1,000 families have fled to Iraq's safer Kurdish-ruled north, according to the United Nations, which recently warned of a steady exodus of Iraqi Christians."
More below the fold...
Update:
"These are the worst and most perilous times" for Christians, Archbishop Nona said in a recent interview.
Snip
Among the estimated 500,000 Christians left in Iraq—half or less of the estimated pre-invasion population of 800,000 to 1.4 million—the Chaldean archbishop is a central figure. Chaldeans, an Eastern rite of the Catholic Church, not only account for two-thirds of Iraq's remaining Christian population, but Archbishop Nona also filled a position left vacant when his predecessor in Mosul was kidnapped and killed.
Archbishop Nona was ordained at the start of 2010, almost two years after al Qaeda-linked militants kidnapped Paulos Faraj Rahho as he celebrated mass at a Mosul church. Archbishop Paulos died in captivity in March 2008, http://online.wsj.com/... .
According to a recent report by Amnesty International: "The wave of attacks on Mosul Christians since the 2003 invasion of Iraq has greatly reduced the community's population which then stood at over 100,000." http://www.amnestyusa.org/...
Note: Mosul is only one city, many such on-going attacks occurring across Iraq - clearing Iraqi Christians from the country and eradicating the Christian heritage and presence from this Mesopotamian cradle of civilization. This is a religious enclave which dates back to the earliest days of the Christian Era.
George Bush Lies Sleepless
George Bush is personally responsible for the war that created the conditions for this horrific exodus;assassinations, bombing, and organized persecution - a blowback on Bush’s Iraq crusade in the name of "freedom."
One stunning and profound, history altering and devastating black mark on Evangelical Christian faith is its strong support of Bush's Iraq War which precipitated the unwarranted and untimely decimation of the Iraqi Christian community. This tragic scenario is the direct result of a fool’s act of a self-proclaimed "committed evangelical Christian," a Texas style born-againer, the former U.S. President George W. Bush.
George W. Never Got It
He never made the cut as a "true believer" and he never understood the outcome of his personal decisions or was capable to have thought through his powerful, personally driven desire to invade Iraq in a blind quest wholehearted engaged by G.W. B and the Neo-Con’s, hold-overs in large part from the Era of Reagan. It was those NeoCon and oil mogul objectives which were unabashedly sold to the gullible American public as fodder for preemptive/aggressor’s war. The Bush Iraqi War is all about oil and military prowess, marinated in the tarpit of old fashion toxic U.S. Imperialism.
This ill-begotten war has had the most devastating and profound impact on one of the world’s most special and ancient, durable branches of the historic Christian faith and tradition. Not even Saddam Hussein did such harm to this community.
This diary introduced the topic of the exile, extermination, and complete suppression of the historic and very ancient Iraqi Christian community; See subtitle Dead Wrong and Head Strong in subsection in the posting:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Also See G.W. B./Christian back story, Kos postings:
Irreparable Harm Worldwide Has Been Done by Bush To Evangelicalism: Part One http://www.dailykos.com/...
Irreparable Harm Worldwide Has Been Done by Bush To Evangelicalism: Part Two
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Irreparable Harm Worldwide Has Been Done by Bush To Evangelicalism: Part Three
Also:Cleaning Out the Bush Defiled Oval Office: Removing a great stench in the nostrils of God
http://www.dailykos.com/...
http://www.dailykos.com/...
Also interrelated Bush/Blackwater Christian back stories, Kos topics:
God's Mercenary: Erik Prince, Blackwater's Commandant, http://www.dailykos.com/...
Blackwater's Prince: Can a blood and guts commander of a mercenary army be a Christian? http://www.dailykos.com/...
BLACKWATER’S ERIK PRINCE GOES HOME TO RESURRECT HIS CHILDHOOD INNOCENCE.
http://www.dailykos.com/...