Elsewhere in Iraq: Most Assyrians are Christian. What will their fate be?

Ambrose Bierce wrote: "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography." A quip too true to be entirely funny.

The Iraq war has introduced us to the Assyrians, a people whom most Americans probably associate with the Bible and assume must have disappeared millennia ago. Yet there they are, on TV, with one of them, Younadem Kanna, taking a seat on Iraq's new governing council. Their precarious history speaks to the perils of the current moment.

I am praying for a new tolerance in Iraq. Even though the majority Shiites are Muslim, they have recently experienced what it is like to be persecuted for their religion. Perhaps that has taught them the lesson of tolerance. If not, perhaps they should be reminded of what they went through and what God sought to teach them.

Your prayers are greatly needed for the Assyrian people of Iraq and the Assyrian community worldwide. My husband, AmericanAssyrian, received word today that his friend, a dedicated and heroic Assyrian who had lived many years in California, was lost yesterday in Tikrit where he was working as a translator. He leaves behind a wife and two children and a grieving nation in exile. My husband is at this minute participating in an online tribute to this man.

Our friend was assisting the 4th Infantry Division when he and two US soldiers were attacked by guerillas with AK-47s. The soldiers were wounded and he was killed. His death was not the first attack on an Iraqi translator working with the military.

I cannot tell you the depth of this loss. My husband and I sat with a group of Iraqi Assyrians in his living room the first night President Bush launched strikes on Saddam. Our soft-spoken but passionate friend was behind our military completely and ready to serve in any way to restore peace, freedom and dignity to the people of Iraq, and especially to the indiginous Assyrians who have been so persecuted.

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There are only two ways to run a multi-ethnic multi-cultural country: (1) through an authoritarian/totalitarian system - like Saadam's, Stalin's, etc., or(2)through decentralization, local autonomy, and confederation - like Switzerland. I hope that we are wise and compassionate enough to give the Assyrian Chistians a defined place in the new Iraq. (And that goes for the Kurds too - who are probably prepared to seize it if necessary.)

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