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I recall in the 1993? when we were preparing to bomb Iraq for invading Kuwait, our CNN reporter was in the downtown Baghdad plaza filming and talking to the Iraqi public, and it was just around Christmas time. He showed vendors selling Christmas trees, and shops all decorated with Santa & nativity scene, and even a bunch of people singing Christmas carol as if you were in any western country.

I agree with you, under Saddam there was FORCED tolerance that muzzled the foaming at the mouth Islamic militants. Now its free for all.

Surprisingly true actually. Saddam’s regime was certainly the one with the most religious freedom in the mid-east. While a generally brutal dictator, his wrath was mostly directed at the Shiates and the Kurds, who were fighting for independence. As bad as he undoubtedly was, one would be hard pressed to argue that things are now better than the pre-gulf war days, which was fought purely because Kuwait was one of the principle suppliers of Oil to the US at the time. I personally think that the Saddam regime was way better than the present Saudi Arabia regime which is barbaric in the extreme but they are our “friends” because our economic aims coincide, though our values couldn’t be further off.

As part of the “war on terror” we have actually set off the one of the worst civil wars in the region. I pray for the souls of the dead in the church attack but also for the thousands of innocents who have died as part of the sectarian violence.

Its strange how one needs to support the “war on terror” to be called Conservative. I don’t subscribe to that since I don’t like being used by Men and their calls of false patriotism.