Iraq A Success? Ask The Assyrians

The war, nation building, police action — or whatever it has been called — in Iraq is technically over.

There are still some troops wrapping things up along with a rapid reaction force of several thousand troops located in Kuwait in case they are needed in a scrap.

The fighting in Iraq lasted nearly nine years. We lost 4,500 lives with another 30,000 wounded and spent nearly a trillion dollars.

The cynic in us would want to say, “For what?” It’s hard to tamp that voice down, because it is a legitimate question. No one knows for sure if Iraq is better off. Some people will say, “No!” Others, usually American politicians, will say Iraq is in much better shape than it used to be.

The facts tell a different story than the politicians. Let’s take a look at a group of Iraqi people and see if they are better off now than they were under Saddam Hussein.

In the late 90s, the estimated number of ethnic Assyrian Christians living in Iraq was as many as 1.4 million people. Today, that number stands at about 500,000.

Under Iraq’s new leadership, this supposedly free and independent country chose the path of forcing the Assyrians who remained to adapt to Muslim customs. Women must wear the hijab, but the biggest specter over their heads is the notion of “convert or die.”

Most of the remaining Christians in Iraq are being urged to relocate to the plain of Nineveh, in the northern portions of Iraq along the border with Turkey and Iran, the traditional homeland of the Assyrian people.

According to the Christians Agence France-Presse, “Since Christians represent the smallest and weakest of Iraqi society, they are the principal victims of violence.” The Christians left in Iraq are faced with relocating, fleeing to another country or abandoning their Christian faith and converting to Islam.

The “democracy” American forces brought to Iraq, and what has swept Arab countries this year has yielded nothing but sorrow for the Christians living in those countries as fundamentalist regimes take the place of dictators. Now, instead of mad tyrants, these countries are to be governed by the law of Islam.

Just two weeks ago in Iraq, 30 Christians were wounded when a mob, instigated by a mosque preacher, set fire to businesses owned by Christians in the northern Iraqi city of Zakho.

This same scene is being played out against the Coptic Christians in Egypt, and if the Assad regime falls in Syria, against the Christians, who make a up sizeable portion, of that country.

The service men and women of the United States who served in Iraq did their jobs valiantly. They sacrificed their youth, their time with family and in many cases they gave their lives. The fighting men and women of this country always are deserving of honor and praise.

Unfortunately, the people who made the decision to go to war, and then allow Iraq to evolve the way it did, are not worthy of such praise. They sacrificed nothing but political clout.

Instead of creating a shining example of Western democracy in the Middle East, we emboldened the forces of Islam and sentenced more than a million Christians to death or a life of servitude, a virus that has spread across the region.