Posted on 02/18/2007 10:19:43 PM PST by freedomdefender
PEWSEY, WILTSHIRE, UK -- Against a backdrop of unremitting violence and the constant threat of persecution, Iraqi Christians are being forced out of their communities and onto the road in a desperate search for safety. In the third of a series of special reports on life within Iraq, Barnabas Fund, based in the UK, has discovered that life as a Christian refugee brings its own dangers and hardships.
“Leaving your home, your job, the life you have always known,” said the report posted on their website – www.barnabasfund.org. “Fleeing for your life, with nothing but your memories, to an unknown destination. It is a decision that few of us in the West will ever be forced into taking. For a growing number of Iraqi Christians, this nightmare is their life.
“Ebrahim Awisha* took this decision when he found out that his son had been targeted by Islamic militants and had broken his leg in the effort to escape their attack. Mrs. Lila Attar* felt she had no choice when her husband was killed by insurgents. Different circumstances, difference trigger points, one similarity; they were targeted because of their Christian faith.
“The ongoing sectarian violence in Iraq preoccupies the Western media. The headlines are dominated by the groups undertaking the fighting – primarily Shia militia and Sunni insurgents. Minority groups get forgotten in the rush to provide the story on the latest atrocity, the newest horror. Iraqi Christians are one such group whose plight is often overlooked.”
Christians make up disproportionate number of refugee population The Barnabas Fund report stated that the latest figures from the UN estimate that around 3.7 million Iraqis - 1 in 8 - have been forced out of their homes by the violence since 2003. Christians, who made up only 3-4% of the population of Iraq, account for nearly a quarter of the refugee population. The number of Christians left in Iraq has fallen from 1.4 million in the 1980s to less than 500,000 now.
“The high number of Christian refugees is not accidental; it is part of the plan of Muslim insurgent groups to clear Iraq of its Christian heritage,” the report continued. “Christian refugees will commonly tell of being given a timeframe - two days, a week - to leave their homes or face death at the hands of insurgent groups. In this time they have to pack up what they can for the long journey and their new life.
“Some try to sell items to pay for the passage, but find few buyers. After all, say some Muslims, why pay for something, when it will be available for free in a few days time? Some simply do not get the chance to go back to their homes. Ebrahim was too scared to take his family back to their house, and so sent his neighbor to collect food and clothing for the journey.
Again....... I cannot type fast enough.
500,000 troops will make no difference if we simply pacify Iraq for a few months before we pull out.
One million troops will not make a difference because all the Islamofascist have to do with withdraw across the Iraqi border and wait until we leave because the government in Iraq is severely weakened by the same forces I mentioned above.
500,000 troops and depose the regimes in Iran and Syria and now we are playing with matches.
You're obviously not a robotic Bush supporter, or you would be ignoring this post, like the true Bushbots are doing. They've got their hands over their ears - they don't want to hear about the horrific refugee crisis that bush's undermanned war has created. At least you're willing to look the problem in the fact and discuss it.
I think all of us supported Sec. Of Defense because the Liberals hated him.
But anyway the point was that Rumsfeld was a bit arrogant and overconfident in what we were doing in Iraq.
If President Bush canned him in 2004, the situation in Iraq might be vastly different and we would be on the brink of turning things around in 2006.
But instead, I don't think the situation will be stabilized until either 2009 or 2010, and we are likely to have a Democratic President in charge.
Time is not in our advantage now, and I predict we will be back in Iraq for the Third time in 10 to 20 years.
I hope I'm wrong.
Freedom on the March bump
Definitely one should address Syrian problem - in Syria still there are many Christians free to worship.
Who on this earth faces a certain future?
This was an understatement. Christians in Iraq face CERTAIN future.
Iraqi Christians are just that - Christians. They've been Christian at least six centuries longer than Muslims have been Islamic.
What if the U.S. offered to resettle Iraqi Christians here? They'd be far more assimilable than mooselimbs, we'd have an Arabic-speaking contigent to help us with understanding the Arab world.
Just a thought. By the way, there are already Iraqi Christian communities in the U.S. How are they working out, assimilation-wise?
Better than them scattering to other Islamic Arab hellholes.
I have to agree. I was scratching my head at the time Iraq was invaded (no it wasn't lice). However, Bush is the CIC, and he presumably was in a much better position to make the decision. Whether, it was a mistake or not, though, we are there not. Pulling out prematurely would be a bigger mistake.
Actually, it is not the job of CIC to make decision whether to go to war or not. His job is to direct war decided by the Congress.
"Definitely one should address Syrian problem - in Syria still there are many Christians free to worship."
Yeah, Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox Christians at that. Probably need to stamp them out the same way we did in Kosovo, use the Mohammedans to do it for us.
We have repeated many of the same mistakes we made in Vietnam. The military is not good at police duties or social work. Its purpose is to kill people and break things. Additionally, fighting prolonged conflicts is not in America's DNA, like it or not. Had America entered World War I in 1914, and we suffered Verdun-level losses with little apparent gain, Wilson would have been soundly defeated had he run for re-election in 1916. Sherman's successes in the South and Grant's reinvigoration of the Army of the Potomac saved Lincoln from defeat in 1864 and a President McClellan probably acquiescing to Southern independence.
Only a quick and decisive victory in Iraq, even if extremely brutal, will save the GOP from losing the White House in 2008, irrespective of who the Presidential nominee is.
Where's their petition?
LOL, don't forget to feel good.
They should be allowed into the USA. Because of their religion, they will not strap bombs around their waists and kill dozens of people. They will not fly planes into buildings.
Ideology predicts behavior.
You give yourself away with the "bushbots" comment! Why should I, a "bushbot" take you seriously? Oh I see, you're enlightening us then, oh wise one! /sarcasm
Us unenlightened bushbots need your wisdom!
Good grief, Get off your high horse whoever you are!
Are you saying that more than a million people have't fled Iraq? Are you saying that most of the Christians have not been forced to flee? Please give me, with specific citations, the sources for your knowledge, as it contradicts what I've been reading. And i'm not talking about what's going on in Kurdistan. If there's no Iraq refugee crisis - if the reports about hundreds of thousands of Iraqis fleeing, including most of the Christians, aren't true - I want to be informed, so please give me some citations.
You have no way of knowing whether Shinseki's plan would have worked. But I do believe you would have been over here on assignment from DU b*tching about that plan too, troll.
You have no way of knowing whether Shinseki's plan would have worked. But I do believe you would have been over here on assignment from DU b*tching about that plan too, troll.
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