No Militia to Defend Us

The question critics of the Iraq war seem to be concerned with is not, "How do we ensure liberty for all Iraqi people?" but, "How do we keep Islamist hotheads quiet?"

Chuck Colson today brings attention to the plight of a group almost completely ignored in the debate over the war: Iraqi Christians.

Avoiding the Final Betrayal

Quoting the New Repuplic, Colson writes:

'Sunni, Shia, and Kurd may agree on little else, but all have made sport of brutalizing their Christian neighbors.' Since neither Iraqi nor Americans officials are willing to protect them, Christians are leaving their ancestral home.

The Iraq Study Group's report forsakes the ancient Christian populations of Iraq ( known historically as Assyrians and Chaldeans):

In its eighty-four pages, the word Christian never appears—not once. The words Assyrians and Chaldeans appear only in passing in the next-to-last recommendation as part of a longer list. Not one paragraph, not one sentence.

In contrast, the report makes multiple references to the fate of the Palestinians whom, last time I checked, don’t live in Iraq.

(Emphasis mine in the preceding quote.)

Colson continues:

Whatever else it represents, the group’s report represents the conventional wisdom about Iraq: Figure out who matters and who needs to be made happy or, at least, less upset. So, while Syria and even Iran are accommodated, the well being of Iraqi Christians doesn’t figure into the equation at all.

As tempting as it may be to throw up our hands, pull out, and let the factions fight it out between themselves (which is immoral and inhumane), we can't do this because there are factions who, as one Iraqi Christian put it, "have no militia to defend us." A democratic republic secures the survival rights of all citizens. The Sunni, Shiite, and other militias fight first of all against religious freedom, an idea they abhor.

Footnote: I admit it hardly occurred to me there were non-Muslims in Iraq until World Magazine wrote about it. There are also Iraqi Jews who have a fascinating history in the region. Islam is the latecomer to the Middle East, founded 700 years after Christianity and millenia after Judaism, yet we listen only to the blustering historic claims and beliefs that arrived last.