I am very happy, no delighted, that the surge is working, for if it was not, we would see terrible things by now: daily, big, terrorist attacks would be carried out daily, Cheney would feel forced to pay al-Maliki a visit because the latter would do absolutely nothing to stop the violence and Christians, for instance, would flee from Baghdad out of fear of being murdered.
Luckily, however, the surge is working.
“Vice President Dick Cheney made an unannounced visit to Baghdad today, meeting with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and other leaders, in an attempt to inject new momentum into the drive to quell violence in Iraq.”
“Christians are fleeing in droves from the southern Baghdad district of Dora after Sunni insurgents told them they would be killed unless they converted to Islam or left, according to Christian leaders and families who fled.
Similar episodes of what has become known as sectarian cleansing raged through Baghdad neighborhoods last year as Sunnis drove Shiites from Sunni areas and Shiites drove Sunnis from Shiite ones, but this marks the first apparent attempt to empty an entire Baghdad neighborhood of Christians, the Christians say.”
Yep, surge, working, just, fine.
It all started three weeks ago, when Sunni Muslim terrorists, issued a fatwa (or religious edict), demanding of Christians to convert to Islam immediately and to pay “jizyah,” an ancient Islamic tax, or, if they refused to do so, leave within 24 hours. If they would not be gone within those 24 hours, they would be killed.
Nice.
The Sunni terrorists have started enforcing the fatwa, by kidnapping Christians, a shooting, “by knocking on doors and by posting leaflets on walls—actions that have prompted hundreds of Christians to leave an area that was once home to one of Baghdad’s largest Christian communities.”
“Bishop Shlimon Warduni, auxiliary bishop of the Chaldean Patriarchate, the ancient Christian sect to which most of the Christians in the Dora area belong” said: “They are talking about security plans and bringing peace, but nothing arrived in Dora. There are no rules, no government and no government forces. This is a full-scale persecution. In all of Iraq’s history we didn’t face a situation like this.”
But, please remember, the surge is working.
Iraq is detoriating more and more, the only thing left to do, so it seems to me, is some serious damage control. We can forget about a truly democratic, stable Iraq, with regard for human rights, at least in the short run. Damage control. Damage control. Damage control. It’s all that left.
O, and, of course, saving as many lives as possible. Those Christians have to be supported by other Christians (and non-Christians of course). They need our support. They can probably use financial aid, or at least moral support. Furthermore, the US and Iraqi military should focus on Dora immediately: protecting Christians living there should be a primary concern.
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