Oops, well, anyway,
Posted on 12/15/2017 12:10:24 PM PST by Texas Fossil
Have the ancient Christian communities in northern Iraq fallen prey to Iran’s radical Islamist aspirations?
Will Iran be permitted to complete its “Shi’a Crescent” or “land bridge,” stretching from Tehran through Iraq, into Syria and on into Lebanon, where Iran’s proxy Hezbollah already asserts enormous power?
Is President Donald Trump’s bold assertion that Iran will be denied hegemony in the Middle East being refuted by the facts on the ground?
Just last week, I wrote about the renewed hope that surged across displaced Christian communities in Iraq’s Nineveh Plain following Vice President Mike Pence’s encouraging speech at an Washington D.C. event.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsmax.com ...
I read elsewhere today that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had asked their citizens in Lebanon to leave.
Putin has announced a pull down of Russian soldiers in Syria.
Israel has repeatedly bombed an Iranian Air Base near Damascus.
You do not need to be a reader of tea leaves to see a pattern. Storm clouds are gathering.
We need to get out of the region and let the locals settle their differences among themselves. Our “allies” want Uncle Sam to solve their Iranian problem with America’s blood and wealth.
After we take care of the SOBs who took Americans as hostages.
“Will Iran be permitted to complete its “Shi’a Crescent” or “land bridge,” stretching from Tehran through Iraq, into Syria and on into Lebanon, where Iran’s proxy Hezbollah already asserts enormous power?”
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That’s part was accomplished last week. The route through to Lebanon to the Med is open, leaving only securing the passage. To that end, Iran is now bringing in 15,000 militia under the direct command of Gen Soleimani placing those troops 10 km from the Israel border on the Golan - in well surveyed positions chosen to neutralized any Israeli oversight - they will likely have Russian air and Intel assets to interdict any Israel incursions and attempts to drive them back. (Bebe said Iranian troops along the Golan is unacceptable, but Israel seems to be ignoring the problem.)
The US seems oblivious.
Oops, well, anyway,
Yep! He did it.
I doubt that, they have attacked Iranian military bases near Damascus several times in the past month, primarily weapons caches from what I've heard. Iran may now have nukes. I'm sure if they do, Israel knows where they are. And I expect the US military does also.
I was referring to the Iranian militia build up along the Golan - not to the several airstrikes on Iranian missile production facilities in Syria. 15,000 troops along the Golan is a lot for Israel to take on in one go, while Hamas keeps tunneling and shelling in the South.
Knowing where some ones stores are is one thing doing something about them in a timely fashion is another. The US mil is stretched thin these days ... while the Dems would immediately begin serious talks with the GOPe to impeach if DJT does anything to stir up those nests in Iran or NOKO.
The Dems are convinced that we can take a nuke hit or two ... after which we should begin to serious talks and unilaterally disarm ... The Zero Plan.
If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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Talk will not work with the Mullahs in Iran or Erdogan the Islamist in Turkey.
They only understand the use of force, which we are reluctant, but quite capable of delivering.
Whatever it takes.
No a nuke on US soil is not a negotiating position.
I’ve know a number of people who made and handled them. This is not a weapon for child players.
This whole article is laughable propaganda. Christians across the Middle East are in an alliance with Iran, Hezbollah and Russia. They fear America’s allies like Saudi Arabia and the US backed terrorists in Syria, who treat Christian much, much worse than Iran.
It’s very clear that OP is a classic neocon who is trying to push a war with Iran. It’s like a flashback to the 2002/2003 fear mongering and one sided demonization of a country before an invasion.
Neocons seemed to go quiet after Trump won the nomination, now they are back demanding another war.
No doubt SA has never embraced Christians.
It is true that some Christians leaders openly deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon. They are like the US GOPe, don't represent Christians, only themselves.
You mention US backed Terrorists in Syria? You must mean Obama's unicorn Arab militias. Yes, that was Obozo's approach. But, our allies in Syria since Trump are the Kurds, and some of their Assyrain Christian and Arab allies. They are not guilty of what you say. I have friends there who actually understand what has happened. I've watched this closely for the past 3+ years.
Assad's Alawites have tolerated Christians because they help keep him in power. He has been considered a heretic by most Muslims. Only the Alawites have the military and government jobs. He is a brutal dictator. He is a Ba'ath Party ruler, just like Saddam was. (Saddam was Sunni, Assad is sort of, Shia)
It is odd, that SA and Israel both want to recognize Kurdistan. That act is what triggered the recent aggression in Iraq by the Quds Militia. (note al-Quds to Iranians means Jerusalem) It's apparent Baghdad is now a surrogate of Iran. (Both SA and Israel are concerned about Iranian military aggression)
In Rojava portion of Syria, Christians are treated equally and fight right beside Kurds and Arabs against ISIS and Nusura. None of them have tried to dismember Syria. They just want to be left alone to live their lives as best they can.
Obama did great damage to most of the Middle East. His attempt failed in Egypt. The US under Trump has helped form a coalition of ME nations who help financially and militarily to end the Terrorist groups. Not just ISIS.
Now, the Iranian Mullahs. They have hung 10,000 people in Iran since they took power. I was looking for news from Iran when I started using Twitter in 2009, during the #IranElection phase. I made friends there, some of them went permanently silent after the Mullahs put down the revolt over the Mullah stealing the election.
Don't try to blow smoke and convince me of the good intentions of the Iranian Mullahs. The Persian people are a totally different subject.
There are Churches of every denomination and Sinagouges in Iran. In US ‘ally’ Saudi Arabia it is a felony to take highway to Mecca for a Christian.
‘’’’It is true that some Christians leaders openly deal with Hezbollah in Lebanon. They are like the US GOPe, don’t represent Christians, only themselves.’ ‘’ ‘
You got used to living in a safe environment and lack the grasp of a Middle Eastern situation.
They do represent the Christians who are risking their very lives on the daily basis and they aren’ t going to bet the lives of their brothers and sisters on some foreign understanding of good and evil. The question why Middle Eastern Christians are anti-American and pro-Russian and pro-Iranian is actually simple. They have seen McCain hanging around with ISIS leaders and Obama bowing down to Saudi royals. Iran and Hisballah are actually killing ISIS. And they are killing Al-Qaeda which is for some weird reason is another US ally right now.
Current (Iranian Christian) situation
In 1976, the census reported that the Christian population of Iran holding citizenship there numbered 168,593 people, with most of them being Armenians. Due to the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, almost half of the Armenians migrated to the newly independent Republic of Armenia.
However, the opposite trend has occurred since 2000, and the number of Christians with Iranian citizenship increased to 109,415 in 2006.
At the same time, significant immigration of Assyrians from Iraq has been recorded due to massacres and harassment in post-Saddam Iraq.
However, most of those Assyrians in Iran do not have Iranian citizenship, and therefore aren't included in the data. In 2008, the central office of the International Union of Assyrians was officially transferred to Iran after being hosted in the United States for more than four decades.
| Census | Christians | Total | Percentage | +/- |
| 1976 | 168,593 | 33,708,744 | 0.500% | ... |
| 1986 | 97,557 | 49,445,010 | 0.197% | -42% |
| 1996 | 78,745 | 60,055,488 | 0.131% | -19% |
| 2006 | 109,415 | 70,495,782 | 0.155% | +39% |
| 2011 | 117,704 | 75,149,669 | 0.157% | +8% |
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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The government guarantees the recognized Christian minorities a number of rights (production and sale of non-halal foods),[citation needed] representation in parliament, special family law etc.[citation needed] According to US-based Barnabas Fund government intrusion, expropriation of property, forced closure and persecution, particularly in the initial years after the Iranian Revolution, have all been documented. Iranian Christians tend to be urban, with 50% living in Tehran. Christianity remains the second-largest non-Muslim minority religion in the country. Christian converts from Islam Beginning in the 1970s some Protestant pastors started to hold church services in homes in Persian, rather than in one of the ethnic Christian minority languages (Armenian, Syriac). One of the key leaders who spearheaded this movement was the Assemblies of God bishop Haik Hovsepian Mehr. Worshiping in homes, rather than in church buildings, and utilizing the national language (Persian) which was spoken by all Muslims, combined with dissatisfaction at violence connected to the Iranian Revolution led to substantial numbers of Iranian Muslims departing Islam and converting to Christianity. This took place both within Iran and abroad, among the Iranian diaspora. After the Iranian Revolution, Christians in Iran were not allowed to proselytize or evangelize Muslims. Muslims who change their faith to Christianity are subject to societal and official pressure which may lead to the death penalty. However, there are cases in which a Muslim will adopt the Christian faith, secretly declaring their conversion. In effect, they are practising Christians, but legally Muslims; thus, the statistics of Iranian Christians does not include Muslim converts to Christianity. Youcef Nadarkhani, an Jammiat-e Rabbani pastor, was allegedly sentenced to death for refusing to recant his faith.[25] More recently the Iranian-American pastor and former Muslim Saeed Abedini, who in 2013 was sentenced to eight years prison, allegedly "Helped to build the country’s underground Christian church network".[26] However, Iranian official sources has described such claims as "propaganda". However, There are some officially recognized ethnically Iranian Christian communities, as the descendants of Muslims who converted to Protestant Christianity in 19th century were exempted from the laws passed in 1979. Apostasy of other religious minorities (Zoroastrians, Jews, Bahá'ís) to Christianity is also illegal, and hence similarly the statistics on Iranian Christians do not include Zoroastrian, Jew, or Bahá'í conversions to Christianity. Satellite TV networks, such as Mohabat TV, Sat7 Pars, and TBN Nejat TV distribute educational and encouraging programs for Christians, especially targeting Persian speakers. Some Christian ex-Muslims emigrate from Iran for educational, political, security or economic reasons. A 2015 study estimated (describing this as a conservative estimate) that there were 100,000 Christian believers from a Muslim background living in Iran, most of them evangelical or Pentecostal Christians. |
We have no argument when it comes to McCain, Hillary, Obama, Kerry and the rest of the Leftist Rat Tards.
Christians are never safe in the Middle East. (by birth or converts.)
Trump IS NOT Obozo. Period.
That’s my point.
I don’t make arguments for the Iranian regime but they allow Christians.
You can run a pig farm and sell pork there which could bring you much trouble even in Israel not that long time ago.
In US ‘ally’ Saudi Arabia being caught with a bacon is akin to a heroine traffic.
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