Posted on 05/11/2016 5:02:16 PM PDT by StCloudMoose
A Chaldean Catholic priest who was kidnapped and tortured by Islamic militants a decade ago in Iraq said Tuesday in Washington that while the American invasion of his country in 2003 was a “big mistake,” President Obama’s decision to withdraw American troops in 2011 was “a bigger mistake.”
After Obama ignored his generals’ recommendations and pulled the last U.S. troops out of Iraq, the president boasted that “we’re leaving behind a sovereign, stable and self-reliant Iraq… This is an extraordinary achievement, nearly nine years in the making.”
But Fr. Douglas Bazi, a priest at the Mar Elias Catholic Church in the Chaldean Diocese of Erbil, pointed out that the U.S. troop withdrawal was a catastrophe for the indigenous Christian population of Iraq, which numbered 2 million before 2003.
“Now there are less than 200,000,” he said.
Fr. Bazi ministers to 400 Christian families who were forced to flee to Kurdistan to escape genocide by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which took advantage of the power vacuum left by the U.S. troop withdrawal to take over large sections of Iraq.
“If you were able to talk to President Obama today, what would you tell him?” CNSNews.com asked Fr. Bazi.
“I know you are going to le[ave] the White House, so let my people remember you in a good way. You give [the] order when the soldier[s] pull out. That was big mistake, that one. I don’t blame you, of course, because your soldiers, they were [sent] there, that was really also a big mistake. But the bigger mistake is when they pull out.
“So if you want to save the Christian [people in Iraq], please open the doors and help the Christian[s] to stand there. Because all of my people there are just [saying] that America is just watching what’s happened to us.”
The priest is being too kind! O’Boogaloo’s pulling out the troops was no ‘mistake’, it was the PLAN, to get all the Christians killed!
O’Boogaloo will have an eternity he was not counting on!
I am not convinced that the 2003 Iraq campaign was a mistake.
Saddam Hussein was paying $25,000 to families of PLO suicide bombers for every Israeli they killed.
One of the world’s most wanted terrorists was living in bagdad under Saddam’s protection.
Saddam had been in near constant violation of the ceasefire terms which ended the first gulf war.
He also tried to assassinate Bush the Elder.
This administration has been working to destabilize Iraq for 8 years. They took out troops, they left equipment behind and they weaponized radicals in Syria. They wanted to destroy Iraq so they could use it as a political weapon for a generation like they did with Vietnam....
Sounds like Trump.
Um, it was not a mistake. Obama achieved his goal: Destruction of a Christian population from 2,000,000 to 200,000. Actually, he’s probably unhappy that even 200,000 remain.
/not kidding
“... in 2008 George W. Bush signed the U.S.–Iraq Status of Forces Agreement. It included a deadline of 31 December 2011, before which “all the United States Forces shall withdraw from all Iraqi territory”” - Wikipedia
The biggest mistake was not taking out Saddam during the First Gulf War, if we weren’t prepared to take him out then, then we had no business going in there in the first place.
this is what happens when you put civilian politicians, who were often lawyers as well, in charge of military operations and Affairs. This should be corrected in our nation with the military fight our wars , forget the civilians they don’t know what they’re doing
HOORAY Fr. Douglas Bazi
SOMEONE from the religious community finally gets it. WOOOOHOOOOO!
The priest has it right.....
Well I am. And was at the time, as FR archives will show. I was yelling my head off that the invasion would be a disaster for Christians. Nobody cared. The neocons got the war they wanted, with the destruction of the world’s oldest Christian communities as a bonus. No one ever said I’m sorry. Most probably weren’t.
That was loaded in the pipeline before Obama was even in the Senate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.