Replies

Well...then we disagree.

Cap'n, the disagreement that existed was on two separate points, I think. "The No Iraqi government will ever allow..." statement you made didn't make sense to me since the missionary's plans are at hand. The article as I read it, meant now, i.e., before an Iraqi government was officially established.

Moving along to what you've outlined in your most recent post, there isn't much on which I *don't* agree with you, except the expectation, or maybe pessimism, that the post-Saddam Iraq will be Islamic: I simply do not think that it is possible that an Iraqi government will be an exception, nor do I think the U.S. would insist on it. I am hopeful, and even prayerful about Iraq not becoming an Islamic state. Truth be told, I will be extraordinarily peeved if that happens given the pledge America has made as Secretary Rumsfeld pointed out on Meet the Press:

The basic principles that President Bush has properly put forward are that

the Saddam Hussein regime has to go,
that the new Iraqi government, whatever it is, be selected by the Iraqi people,
that it not have weapons of mass destruction,
that it not threaten its neighbors,
that it be a single country and that
the people of that country be free to put themselves on some kind of a path towards a representative system that protects the rights of the minorities and the ethnic groups in that country.

Sharia [Islamic] law has not, will not, and can not adhere to the final requirement. The Status of Non-Muslim Minorities Under Islamic Rule
FReegards.

Well...there is a big difference between the non-fundamentalist traditional Islamic approach (religious toleration but a ban on evangelism) and an islamist approach. Such a traditional approach would respect religous rights but place a limit on spreading them. The best we can hope for is a system much like Israel which allows toleration but bans any attempt to change the status quo e.g. bans evangelism.

The missionaries you mention may be allowed in Iraq to distribute food, etc. but when the start spreading the idea of Christianity, they will be kicked out immediately. If you want to bet otherwise, I would be more than happy to take you up on it.

Finally, we disagree on another point. The future of Iraq should be for the Iraqis not U.S. paternalists and social engineers to determine. We should turn over authority immediately to an interim government and get the heck out! That is the American way of sovereignty and self-government, rather than empire.