Why Millions of Christians
Will Mourn This Christmas
By Daniel McAdams
December 25, 2014 "ICH"
- "RPI"
- It will be a miserable Christmas for
the overseas victims of US interventions
this year. Though "regime change" proponents
talk of bringing freedom and democracy to
the countries they target, the end result is
quite the opposite: the rise of extremism,
famine, ethnic cleansing, and economic
destruction are what the US government has
left behind in places like Iraq, Syria, and
Ukraine.
The neoconservatives who pushed for war in
Iraq are incapable of self-reflection, but
the numbers do not lie. For the first time
in more than 1,000 years,
reports the Washington Post today, "the
plains of Nineveh and its provincial capital
of Mosul have been virtually emptied of
Christians." Where there had been religious
and cultural diversity for centuries, the
destruction of Iraqi society brought about
by US intervention has left only the most
hardened of extremists to terrorize what is
left of the population. Already six in ten
Christians have fled Iraq, leaving churches
empty and a way of life that dates to the
time of Christ a distant memory.
Father Miyassir al-Mokhlasee of Baghdad's
St. George’s Chaldean Catholic Church is
struggling to keep his flock, as every
Christian who is able is fleeing. “We
believe that God wants us here for diversity
in the region," Fr. Mokhlasee said. “We are
becoming fewer in number... We ask God that
we can keep our churches, keep our country,"
he added in an Advent sermon.
At least in the short term, however, his
prayers may not be answered.
Many Americans, particularly those who rely
on the mainstream media for information,
will believe that the rise of
Christian-killing ISIS and al-Qaeda in Iraq
is the result of the US military's
departure from Iraq rather than from
the US invasion of Iraq. Simple
logic argues the opposite: if even the
Washington Post admits that Christians
thrived in Iraq until the 2003 invasion, how
can it be argued that the invasion was not
responsible for the decimation of
Christianity in Iraq?
Those on the receiving end of the US
invasion have a much clearer view of cause
and effect. As the Post article tells us:
One of Iraq’s most senior
Christian religious figures, Chaldean
Catholic Patriarch Louis Sako, has
accused the United States of being
'indirectly responsible' for the exodus
of one of the world’s most ancient
Christian communities, pointing to the
chaos caused by the 2003 invasion.
Christmas will likewise be a
somber celebration for the estimated 500,000
Ukrainians who were forced to flee their
homes as the US-backed regime in Kiev
destroyed much of eastern Ukraine. Again it
is a question of cause and effect. The US
mainstream media will blame the separatist
regions of eastern Ukraine for the violence,
but will ignore the precipitating factor:
the US-backed coup in Kiev that ousted an
elected government and put into power an
unelected regime hostile to the eastern
provinces of that country.
Even founder and CEO of Stratfor (the
"Shadow CIA") George Friedman -- a man not
given to flights of fancy --
described the events in Ukraine earlier
this year as, "the most blatant coup in
history.” According to Friedman, part of the
reason for US backing of the Ukraine coup
was as retaliation for Russian involvement
in Syria. It was half a year prior to the
outbreak of unrest in Ukraine that Russia
had brokered a deal that saw Syrian
President Assad give up his chemical weapons
to avoid an American attack. Was the
destabilization of Ukraine the
neoconservative retaliation for Putin's
thwarting their plans for a US invasion of
Syria?
Many residents of eastern Ukraine will be
spending Christmas (which falls on January 7
according to the Orthodox calendar)
underground in Soviet-era bomb shelters.
They will have neither running water,
sanitary facilities, nor privacy. Their
homes have been destroyed by the US-backed
regime in Kiev.
The UK Telegraph
describes what happened to some of the
war's most recent victims, when an early
"Christmas present" from Kiev destroyed
their homes:
'It was just a massive
boom, the windows cracked, and we threw
ourselves on the floor. We know what to
do,' the 53-year-old said, looking out
over the stricken courtyard below the
fourth-storey flat.
The December 8 attack ripped apart a
neighbouring block of flats, killed six
people, and knocked out the heating
station that keeps the neighbourhood
warm. In the grim context of the past
few months in eastern Ukraine, it was a
routine tragedy.
In Syria, where the US has
backed Islamist extremists in a three-year
effort to overthrow the secular Assad
regime, Christianity has also been nearly
eliminated. In Aleppo, home to one of
Syria's largest pre-war Christian
populations, citizens are split between a
government-controlled sector and a
rebel-held sector in the east. A few
Christians remain in the government-held
areas where,
according to AFP:
Families from
government-controlled districts gather
every Sunday evening in the church,
which is brightly lit thanks to its
generator, a major draw in a city where
frequent power cuts plunge homes into
darkness.
The few Christians that
remain in Syria are determined to maintain a
culture that goes back to the time of
Christ:
Father Imad Daher of the
Latin church of Saint Francis said
Christians are preparing to put up their
Christmas trees.
'We will celebrate Christmas, even if
our numbers have dwindled. We will
celebrate with a mass for peace,' he
said.
These are only some of the
victims of an interventionist US foreign
policy. American Christians who prepare to
celebrate the birth of Christ the King
should pause and reflect on what is being
done in their name overseas. If they believe
they are promoting Christian values overseas
with their support for US global
interventionism, they might want to ask some
of their co-religionists who are much closer
to the falling bombs and whirling machetes
of the head-choppers. Hopefully American
Christians will demand an end to the tyranny
of the neoconservatives and "humanitarian"
interventionists who dominate US foreign
policy. Theirs is the regime that truly
needs to be changed.
Copyright © 2014 by RonPaul Institute. Permission
to reprint in whole or in part is gladly
granted, provided full credit and a live
link are given.
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