I agree, but I do not accept that we have abandoned the Christians in Iraq and Syria. VP Pence has been very vocal about that.
The issues in Iraq are different than in Syria.
In Iraq, most of the Chaldean’s have been forced to immigrate to the West where possible. I’ve been told that some of Muslims there have converted to Christianity and replace some of those who left. It is very hard to do that.
In Syria, the number of Christian converts are increasing. The significance of that has been downplayed publicly because of the danger. Syriac’s there have been active participants in the YPG/YPJ and later in the SDF. They have fought well in battle. And many of them have died in battle. I’ve had some contact with MFS forces in SDF.
If we can freeze and overcome Turkey’s ambitions, there is a lot of promise in N. Syria. Things have certainly changed since ISIS was shut down. There is still a small but significant pocket of ISIS on Eastern Border of Syria and the one Turkey transplanted to Efrin (Afrin).
There is the issue of Church structure in the ME. Most of the old ones were top down, not what I grew up with which is locally controlled. The top down structure has always negotiated with the central government and the results of that are mixed.
Many of the Iraqi christians fled to Syria, which is why the number of christians there is increasing. Coupled to that is the FACT that Assad protected and protects Christians
That's another of my bugbears, instead of supporting Assad obama went to support the jihadis
We should set up a a Christian lebanon, Christian southern Syria, Alawite coastal syria, Kurdistan and renewed Assyria.