The End of Christianity in Iraq

Christians of Iraq ^ | July 24, 2006 | Glen Chancy

[xzins]

I repeat, there was no reputable military mind who thought that Saddam could mount an offensive against the US using WMDs.

The issue was use of WMDs in some kind of terrorist plot.

Even Cheney's statement is in that context.

[P-Marlowe]

Suitcase nukes, therefore, are not a credible threat. (Source)

Ok how many of this sized nuclear bomb (1950's technology) can you fit in a shipping container?

This technology is in the hands of China, North Korea, Pakistan, India, France, Great Britan, Russia and most of its now independent former republics, Israel, and probably several others. It will soon be in the hands of Iran.

They do not need to launch a missle from Tehran to strike America. All they need to do is to drop one in the hands of some independent terrorist group and it will be on the next boat to New York Harbor. They will have plausible deniability and will point their fingers at Israel and Pakistan.

[xzins]

Suitcase nukes are simply small warheads.

Other nuke options exist including various dirty bomb and radiation poisoning schemes.

The major options would always have been chem/bio. Bio was the most formidable, and the reason all the troops were required (initially) to get the anthrax shot.

[MikeA]

Who said I approve of them doing it any more than anyone else?? Why do you assume to know what I approve of? Regardless, while I don't support any of the people you name, neither do I support someone being so disrespectful of Christ to put a silly picture of him with a text ballon over his head saying something they have NO RIGHT to claim he said.

[MikeA]

Or I should say, they have NO RIGHT to claim he would say that. I don't think that person was claiming he did say that. I thought it was blasphemous and a blatant case of someone misappropriating Christ to support their left wing ideas.

[P-Marlowe]

Your ridiculing him tells me a lot about you, Jude24.

Jude is still a student at college. I grew out of it. There is hope for him.

Although I will admit that I do not recall ridiculing high profile Christians when I was a long haired bleeding heart socialist anti war commie sympathizer. While I was a young stupid pinko, I did still have respect for my elders and I did not question the committment to Christ of others simply because they were on the other end of the political spectrum. All that mattered to me was that they proclaimed Christ and him crucified.

Eventually I came around. I came to the realization that liberalism was not the way to acheive inner peace or world peace while I was meditating in 3 hour gas lines.

Thank you Jimmy Carter.

[karnage]

Points well taken. I do know that the situation is serious. I know General Georges Sada personally, and other Iraqi Christians. I am concerned. But I also know their incredible resilience. Beyond prayer, what practical steps do you advise for us "rich, well-fed American Christians" to take in aid of our Iraqi brethren?

[Old_Mil]

The Assyrians and Chaldeans have survived quite a lot in the 2,000 years of their amazing Christian history. They will survive the current crisis. The above piece makes valuable points, but its doom-laden, handwringing tone is overwrought.

And yet the fact remains that the Assyrian Christians went from living in a secular dictatorship where they faired no worse than any other group to being the most highly persecuted religious group in Iraq under what will undoubted be another "Muslim Democracy" like the new Afghani regeime that wanted to behead a man for converting to Christianity.

[Old_Mil]

Hopefully, Jim Robinson will continue to tolerate my Old-Right, Ultra-Conservative, Reactionary Utopian perspective on his website. It's his Property; I'm just a Calvinist fly in the Modernist ointment.

You're not the only fly, friend.

[xzins]

Just War, OP.

We were attacked. We are responding. George Washington did some of that, too. In fact, it seems pretty clear that he led a war with somewhat less, obvious justification than our current war on terror. That's why the necessity of explaining it all in the Declaration of Independence.

Nothing else really needs to be said.

[P-Marlowe]

The Christians of Iraq are not engaging in "handwringing" -- they are being Raped and Murdered. By the Hundreds of Thousands.

OK OP, what is your solution? Cut and Run? Do you believe that the Christians in Iraq will be any safer if we pull our troops and leave the country to the insurgents? And will the Christians in this country be any safer if the we surrender to the islamic radicals there?

War is Evil. God hates War.

Did not God ordain this conflict? Did not God ordain George Bush to be the president? Is this not all part of God's plan?

God hates war? Do you have a bible verse to match that allegation? God ordered the Israelites to conquer the "promised land" It was promised to them, but they had to fight dozens of wars that were all ordered by God in order to claim it and reclaim it. Did not God order the Babylonians to come in and steal away the Jews to Babylon? Was that not part of God plan? Did not God order the occupation of Israel by the Romans? Could Christ have been crucified if Rome had not taken the promised land by force? Did not God order the destruction of Israel? Were the wars and plagues in the Bible ordered by a different God than the one you say "hates war"?

God does not "hate war". There has never been a war in which God's hand did not rule over the leaders on both sides. Do you disagree? Are you standing here today crying that this present conflict is not ordained of God? Are you standing here today crying that God is not in control?

And when you are done answering these questions, answer this one: What is YOUR solution? Anyone can complain, but coming up with a solution takes real thought. Right now you are in the company of those thoughtless peacenicks like Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore and John Murtha whose solution would embolden the terrorists everywhere and leave Christians everywhere in peril.

So what is your solution?

[xzins]

Any people, who when attacked, are more worried about getting back to bread and circus, than in preserving their lives, deserve not the bread, the circus, nor the life.

Their conquerors do them a favor.

[Theo]

You're speaking from ignorance. Rough words, but true. Perhaps some day you'll realize that.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Maybe the poster only speaks for blonde Jesus.

LOL, I had that thought myself, the gay blond Jesus?

[karnage]

Not quite, according to General Sada.

[xzins]

God does not "hate war". There has never been a war in which God's hand did not rule over the leaders on both sides. Do you disagree? Are you standing here today crying that this present conflict is not ordained of God? Are you standing here today crying that God is not in control?

I'm continually confronted in this eschatology debate as to who really believes God has this all planned out.

Why is it so hard to believe that God has ordained this conflict in Israel? It's just like breathing to see it that way.

[George W. Bush]

There is no reputable military person I can think of who would have thought that Saddam had the capacity to launch a WMD offensive against the US.

And yet the civil defense advisories which strongly suggested the purchase of duct tape and plastic sheeting by the civilian population. Remember the run on them in the hardware stores? Recall those videos of panicked people? How about that guy outside New York who wrapped his entire house in plastic sheeting and duct tape?

Do you recall the unwarranted talk about Saddam's killer ocean-crossing model airplanes, loaded with WMD potentially?

It was a panic. Perhaps a deliberate one. Our government and Britain's have softened up civilian resistance to war by such means prior to previous wars.

[xzins]

Model airplanes are a delivery system, but they are not an offensive. We must be using terms diffently.

[George W. Bush]

Model airplanes are a delivery system, but they are not an offensive. We must be using terms diffently.

I'm referring to small unmanned aircraft built on the lines of R/C models. Typically, they are a long-range powered glider design and are computer-controlled and GPS-guided. These type of craft have been built for under $10,000 and have been launched and crossed the Atlantic and landed at their destination in Europe for at least the last five years. It's not rocket science, merely applying known principles to readily available off-the-shelf technology.

I'm sure you recall the panic over reports that Saddam was testing these and had models that were flying over five hundred miles at his testing grounds.

We had threads on the topic here at FR. And it was on national news repeatedly during the U.N. flap and the run-up to invasion. That was how Saddam was going to get us with his WMD and tied directly into why we should have the plastic sheeting and duct tape for civil defense.

Very reminiscent of the panics over Japan's war balloons in WW II. Fortunately, Japan never launched any war balloons equipped with bioweapons but they certainly had the edge over Russian, America, Germany and Britain in bioweapons. They just never tried to use them. I'm sure you're familiar with their infamous project and the thousands they killed testing their weapons on live subjects.

[xzins]

I'm talking about conducting an offensive campaign against the US.

After one such strike, there would be no ability to sustain operations. In fact, there were no such strikes, and Hussein was easily rendered incapable of sustaining military operations. Our ability to project power and mount an offensive campaign is not an ability that we alone have. Great Britain, China, Russia, France, and others could do it.

There was never any suggestion that Saddam could bring a WMD war to us. Nor is there any likelihood that Iran or N. Korea can do it. N Korea would be able to mount a campaign against any of their neighbors.