Syria: Kurdish soldiers loot Christian homes; archbishop escapes death

Catholic World News ^ | September 22, 2016

[RedWulf]

Kurdish forces fired bullets into the home of a Syrian Catholic archbishop as part of a campaign of intimidation against Christians.

Archbishop Jacques Behnan Hindo, who is based in the northeastern Syrian city of Al-Hasakah, told the Fides news agency that he narrowly escaped being shot in the head.

“In many cases they expelled the Christians from their homes under the threat of Kalashnikovs,” he said. “And where they enter, they loot everything.”

As belligerents in the Syrian Civil War who oppose the government as well as the Islamic State, Kurdish forces now control one-fifth of Syria and have established Rojava, a semi-autonomous state.

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

These are our friends?

The Kurds are Muslims. Saladin was a Kurd who led the Muslims to reconquer parts of the Mideast from the Crusaders. Present day Kurds are our friends so long as we bomb their enemies.

[HLPhat]

>>Maybe somebody can remind me why we are trying to take down Assad.

Well, once upon a time, when folks could still articulate the difference between the USSA and the USSR...

in 1971, under an agreement with President Hafez al-Assad, the Soviet Union was allowed to open its naval military base in Tartus,^[4][5] a facility the former Soviet republic continues to use to this day. 

http://www.google.com/#q=USSR+Assad

But, IMHO, the whole last century needs to be reviewed in the context of what Ike was trying to warn us about:

[Eisenhower’s “Military-Industrial Complex” Speech Origins and Significance]
US National Archives
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gg-jvHynP9Y

And, I get the impression I'M not alone in that HO...

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=Bush+voting+for+clinton

https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=who+armed+isis

[Claud]

I was very pro-Kurd based on the news reports—probably posted stuff to that effect on here—and I went through a YouTube phase looking at videos of people joining up with them.

But I noticed the women in these female units were calling each other “comrade” or some such, and then learned how the movement itself was socialist.

Mm....no, sorry, not interested in propping up a Middle Eastern socialist state.

Give the Assyrian Christians an autonomous province or two instead. And weapons. Lots of weapons.

[Shadow44]

Not true.

Kurds participated in the Armenian genocide as well as the Assyrian genocide rather extensively.

This isn’t brought up, but Assyrians haven’t forgotten that less than a century ago they were killing them too.

Assyrians have reported that while Kurds do let them live, they often are pressured to assimilate. I don’t doubt that there are pressures to do so.

[lacrew]

“Maybe somebody can remind me why we are trying to take down Assad.”

Liberal logic:

Saddam Hussein posed no threat to our national security, and we had no business in Iraq...although he had vowed to harm us and had a documented use of chemical weapons and was working on a nuclear program...and had an Al Quaeda training camp in Iraq.

Assad was not openly calling for our destruction and was not thought to have advanced weapons programs...and was fighting ‘rebels’ who happened to be ISIS...so he is obviously a threat and must be removed.

Makes about as much sense as what we did in Libya.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“Maybe somebody can remind me why we are trying to take down Assad.”

We The People aren’t. 0bama is. Aided by the Democrats and complicit RINOs in Congress!

We’re So Screwed.

[ConservativeMind]

Can we just nuke all non-Christians?

[BeauBo]

“Maybe somebody can remind me why we are trying to take down Assad.”

Perhaps because the Saudis wanted it, in return for their large cash donations?

[BeauBo]

Could be disinformation (this was a major propaganda theme against the Kurds vis a vis the Sunnis earlier this year).

Also could be a political dispute, where the local Christian community or their leaders are supporting the Assad Regime vs. the Local Coordinating Committees of the YPG-led government. Or it could just be plunder by some corrupt local bad eggs.

Before the US shifted their train and equip mission from the Free Syrian Army to the YPG Kurds, they formed the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to put a diverse democratic face on it. Although the SDF was overwhelmingly composed of the Kurdish YPG political party and their militias, the main addition was Assyrian Christian militias. They have been successfully kicking ISIS out of territory together ever since.

It may well be true, but the doctrine of the YPG is very explicitly multi-ethnic and multi-religious democracy (albeit with a cult-like leader and a newly watered down socialist model).

I am leery of believing this uncritically without multiple confirmations - lies are more common than truth over there.

[WENDLE]

Let me assure you . the Kurds are not the friend of Christianity. We assume they are allies. They are NOT allies. This is a religious war — we had better get in the fight. Praise Jesus.

[katiedidit1]

There are good Kurds and bad Kurds. The PKK is a terrorist group but the Kurds in Iraq that were victims of Hussein’s are friends of the United States and the ones we armed

[CorporateStepsister]

“they can bring back Hee Haw with all kinds of corny Mohammedan humor”

You should write for television networks.

[Eleutheria5]

Among all the Islamic nut jobs, they are the least undeserving of a state. They are less undeserving than ISIS and Assad, at any rate. Can’t stop rhyming.

[Eleutheria5]

Junior? I heerd you was pitchin’ woo at the Imam’s daughter yisterday.
No, grandpaw. I was pitchin’ somethin’, but it weren’t woo.

[Eleutheria5]

Hey. We Jews can nuke back. You also want to take out India and Japan?

[Eleutheria5]

There are also complex tribal and family ties, which, if you study Kurds and their society for the next twenty years, you may be able to write a book that will already be out of date by the time it reaches the bookstores. Same with Arabs, Balluchis and all the others. Leonard Cohen had it right, at least vis a vis the Middle East: “When you call me brother, forgive me if I ask you, just according to whose plan? When it all comes down to dust, I will kill you if I must and help you if I can. When it all comes down to dust, I will help you if I must, and kill you if I can.”

[Lent]

They’re Moslems. Read about their history against Christians in that region. It’s disgusting.

[Lil Flower]

So much for them being allies.

[Tours]

Kurds are Sunni Muslims. They don’t especially like Turks or Arabs but they doesn’t change their attitude toward no-Muslims.

[RedWulf]

Assad protects the Syrian Christian minority. I consider that better than the kurds.