Bush Administration Utterly Callous Toward Iraqi Refugees
New definition of chutzpah: You send a country to hell, and then you refuse to assist the millions of people you have caused to suffer.
The Bush Administration is showing the utmost callousness toward the more than two million Iraqis rendered nationless due to its misadventure. A recent conference in Amman, Jordan, to deal with the situation only highlights the crisis. An estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees live in Syria, and 750,000 in Jordan. (An additional two million are internal refugees-out of a population of twenty-eight million-making this a catastrophe of truly staggering proportions.)
Iraq’s neighbors, economically ill-equipped to cope with the massive population flows, are having to bear the brunt. The fact that Syria is hosting, by far, the most refugees is made even more interesting by the fact that it is on the official enemies list and has been repeatedly accused by the Bush Administration of having a negative role to play in the war. Now, the refugees have often not been treated well in these countries, but at least they have managed to find asylum there.
In contrast, what has been the sum total of Bush Administration’s efforts to alleviate the distress it has helped create? Almost zero. Since the start of the war, in four long years, the United States has allowed in just 701 refugees. The grand number of 202 Iraqi refugees were admitted to the United States in 2006, while in the first half of this year, the State Department let in sixty-eight. You read those figures right. A single town (Sodertalje: population 60,000) in Sweden (a country not exactly responsible for creating the crisis) took in last year twice as many Iraqi refugees as did the whole of the United States (population 300 million). The situation would be laughable if the effects of the Bush Administration’s pitilessness weren’t so heartrending.
In fact, the Bush Administration has limited itself almost completely to aiding the entry into the United States of Iraqis working directly with the U.S. forces in that country. This lame endeavor has also been embroiled in snafus and security checks, with even (hold your hats!) Administration officials admitting “that there remained a gap between words and action on the issue,” The New York Times states.
The consequences of inaction are grave, as a recent Amnesty International report notes.
“This is threatening to create an humanitarian crisis that could engulf the region unless concerted international action is taken now,” says Malcolm Smart, director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Program.
The numbers are so staggering that the individual stories get lost in the thicket. Nir Rosen (a contributor, I must add, to The Progressive) has a superb recent cover feature in The New York Times Magazine that lays bare many of these tales. He encounters fighters who have ironically been forced out of their country due to the violence. He tells of an Iraqi doctor named Lujai, who fled to Syria along with her family after Shiite militias killed her husband. He encounters in Cairo Muhammad Abu Rawan, who has found refuge there from the endless civil strife in Iraq. And he comes across hundreds of Iraqi Palestinians who are stranded in tents in no man’s land on the Iraqi-Syrian border.
Juxtaposed with these accounts are the heartless words of John Bolton, former ambassador to the United Nations, who is unwilling to admit even the tiniest iota of U.S. responsibility for the situation.
“Our obligation,” he tells Rosen from his air-conditioned office at the American Enterprise Institute, “was to give them new institutions and provide security. We have fulfilled that obligation. I don’t think we have an obligation to compensate for the hardships of war.”
Bolton doesn’t think that the Bush Administration should even give aid to the refugees. “Helping [them] flies in the face of received logic,” says one of the architects of the Iraq War. “You don’t want to encourage the refugees to stay. You want them to go home.”
His ex-colleagues still in the current Administration share his notions, even if they can’t afford to be as blunt as he is. “The problem is one caused by the repressive regime” of Saddam Hussein, Ellen Sauerbrey, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, informs Rosen.
The complete lack of a moral center in this crowd is incredible.
© 2007 The Progressive
It runs in the family. After Gulf I, Bush Sr. decided to have the CIA tell the Kurds in the north that if they rebelled, we would be right behind them. The Kurds were run off half way to Turkey and when they came back, Saddam flew in helicopters and shot many of the Kurds in the head with hand guns…I saw the video footage. Sr. and Jr. should both be forced to watch those scenes over and over until they get the message. There ARE consequences to your actions. Think VERY carefully before you pretend to be the “decider”.
Callousness about the lives of non white peoples, even those that are the direct result of an action by the US government, is a hallmark of the American people.
The current “Administration” partly reflects this and partly exhibits its even more vile callousness.
Think about it: the war based on lies is going on for almost six years. The MSM (main stream media), especially TV, has not provided even a one hour documentary at a refugee campsite in a “friendly’ country like Jordan to at least let the American people see and put a human face on the cataclysm that their Government’s policies have wrought on innocent people, especially little children. The latter are especially precious to anyone that has a soul that can be redeemed because they stare at you with hope 9 (marked by deep despair) in the few pictures that the censored and censoring media lets through.
It is those little angelic faces, holding their Mom’s hand, looking straight at the camera, completely befuddled and scared by adults gone mad, that gets to anyone that has an ounce of sprituality in them.
Most Americans do not have that, at least not for peoples that they hate, or have blindly come to hate through the AIPAC media such as Fox - - the worst - - to CNN, the slightly less worse. I mean, even organised churches, even the “liberal” ones do not want to record for posterity
and report now what their delegations (if any) found and saw.
It is painfully obvious that if such a tragedy had befallen, even on one thousandth the scale of that which now affects 4 million Iraqi innocents, including one million - - ONE MILIION — children, on say the German, the Swedish, the Italian, the English, or any “Euro” (white) people, we would have had endless TV and MSM coverage of that with marches in the street by millions of “white” soccer moms demanding immediate humanitarian action by Washington.
But we do not have that here, just as we did not have that when 20,000 innocent Black people and children were stranded for days near that stadium in New Orleans without food, water, medicines or anything else that makes human life minimally dignified.
Also you will notice that your article will have very few comments, even on this so-called “progressive” website, just as every non-white named article has experienced. All you have to do is to go through the CD website for any one week at random, which would be a scientific test.
For example yesterday, there was this incredible picture of angelic Afghan little girls - - GIRLS for heavens sake - - providing a glimpse into the humanity of the people being slaughtered by the mechanised killing machines of western armies in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And what did we see?
THREE - - YES, JUST 3 - - comments on the FIRST DAY, and one of them (with a Viking name saying as much that these innocents deserved it. At the same time there were 48 comments on the blonde, white football player Tillman and why and how he died. Shades of Albright!
The other bloggers (progressives?) here say I am ANGRY. You see, they want non white peoples NOT BE ANGRY, even in the face of mass murder of our innocents. Well, if do not have outrage, then there is no compassion in your soul (if they have one) and no fire in your belly to right a wrong on Dante’s Hell scale.
That is why their peace movements, their “petitions”, their pathetic demostrations with 300 people out of 300 million have borne no fruit. The LIGHT is not with them.
What can one do? I do not know how to change 300 million people who do not yet exhibit anything close to a human soul.
Aymon
The USA should be required to take in the 2 million Iraqi refugees they have caused to flee their country.
This is standard operating procedure. Don’t expect anything different from a fascist regime. If some American corporation finds a way to make huge profits by helping refugees you might see something happen. More likely, they’ll find an excuse to start killing them. That’s an industry we already understand.
Send the humans back to the stoneage. Maybe they’ll make the right choices next time around.
The value of human life is inversely proportional to the price of oil.
AYMON: One of the best films ever done on American antipathy was LITTLE MURDERS, written by Jules Pfeiffer of the Village Voice. It commented on violence (senseless) in America. A particularly poignant scene took place in a NY subway (so filthy compared with the ones I’ve seen in San Francisco, London, Singapore) where a person just mugged and wounded, gets on the train and no one notices that they are bleeding. The only person to even nod with any affinity or empathy is an individual who likewise, has just been assaulted.
IF we were not so thick-skinned, empathy would come easier. And as you so rightly portray, IF photos (a picture being worth 1000 words) were broadcast by MSM, then FEW Americans could retain postures of righteous indifference to a calamity being done daily in their name.
Karma is an equal opportunity employer, and as such, whether on the basis of global warming and aberrant weather events or the crash of the US dollar (what some well-informed posters have related to the real reason behind the Iraq war debacle) it will not be long before US citizens get to walk in the mocassins of refugees… we may become a nation of dispossessed people. On a Biblical scale, when a nation turns against the TEACHINGS and SPIRITUAL PRINCIPLES, for all its lip service to the Deity (in whatever brand name) s–t happens. UNLESS enough citizens can raise hell, the Bush slash & burn machine destines us to facing much that we, as a nation, visited upon others. The karmic free pass is null and void.
George Bush and his kind were born without an ounce of humanity or compassion in their body and soul. They’re a strange and evil species of humanoids, only out for money and power. Case closed.
“A single town (Sodertalje: population 60,000) in Sweden (a country not exactly responsible for creating the crisis) took in last year twice as many Iraqi refugees as did the whole of the United States (population 300 million).”
Another reason to love Sweden!
But these people (the bush administration) simply have no humanity as a result of experience, not birth. Their treatment of these people, first claiming to bring salvation but then torturing, killing, or letting them starve in desperation, is horrible, and I’m sure it is what george w’s childhood was like, constantly being beaten by his conservative religious mother and father, and receiving no mercy, no forgiveness, no help.
Aymon: “Callousness about the lives of non white peoples, even those that are the direct result of an action by the US government, is a hallmark of the American people”.
I agree with you wholeheartedly, Aymon. From the moment we (I am a white woman)stepped foot on this continent, we have assumed we have a right to everyone elses property, land, everything owned by someone else. Now it appears the continent of North America isn’t enough, so we’ll take on the Middle East for its resources.
I am an American, but I am not a proud American. There are millions of us who think as I do, and we sit behind our computers and bemoan and despise what our “leaders” are doing. We hardly watch MSM except to see what they are up to and get our real news from the internet, Olbermann (sometimes), Stewart and Colbert, Bill Moyers. Only a very few of us are taking REAL action and I am ashamed to say that I am not one of them. I contribute $$, write to the senate, to congress, to the whitehouse, to the newspapers, and take part in environmental issues (greening my home), sign any online petition about environment, political action, bring the troops home, etc., but I do not make myself heard by the masses. However, there ARE many more than 300 out of 300 million who care and are doing our best. I agree that the majority seem to be totally ignorant (including some of my family members), and the worst part is that they don’t care as long as it doesn’t directly affect their daily lives.
I wish I had some answers and solutions, but I am just one of many millions who feel this way. We didn’t fight when our election results were fraudulent, we didn’t fight when our “leaders” turned the country over to the madmen on October 11, 2002, and we sat back and watched while the msm and the administration collaborated and lied the country into a war for oil. We are still sitting back and waiting for the “lawmakers” we elected in 2006 to do what they said they would do if elected and for the msm to report all of the crimes and misdemeanors of our elected and appointed leaders.
There was a photo on the internet a few weeks ago, of an Afganistan boy about 12 years old who was crying over the deaths of his family. It made me weep. That picture was worth a million words and should have been on every media outlet. What goes around comes around, I am sure of that but it takes way too long and way too much loss of blood and lives. I hope to see our “leaders” pay for their actions before I die, but don’t think that will happen.
Siouxrose sister in Light:
Thanks for your heartfelt post here and the other one where I am in a much more upset mood.
And all the others who have written today on this crucial issue about the refugees, may the LIGHT bless you all and all those who will come after you.
lo Q Lellity: A heart warming piece of information. Why do progressive websites in America not keep track of all the humane actions by Americans and other peoples to help their fellow humans in their hour of need? Surely that is more important and soul uplifting than endless articles on impeachment and the Democrats and Republicans and third parties, blah blah blah. Even on CD, there should be at least a picture or a small news item that is soul uplifting or soul disturbing to make people here rediscover their lost humanity.
Dear Editors of CD. I hope you are reading. We need to get the LIGHT on our side pretty soon. Touching the innate compassion in people’s hearts, no matter how much darkness may have temporariliy settled there as selfish soot, will get the Peace and LIGHT agenda in in rocket propulsion compared to snail speed it is stuck in right now.
Peace
Aymon
Southern Yankee:
I just saw your heartfelt post and I weep with you sister. We fight over material things though we are here on Earth only for a short period in Eternity. Once that awareness comes to anybody - - that one will enter the grave with nothing that we have hoarded here except our acts of compassion and love, then we will not take a single action to harm another life form. This may sound hokey, but when I go fot a walk and see a tree, I stroke it and praise it and its kind (I learnt that from Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan) for all the free gifts they give us and for protecting the environment.
I mentioned in earlier posts this.
Adopt a child in Darfur or elesewhere who will die of hunger for the $200 it costs (I think CARE INTERNATIONAL is a very honest charity for children), and when you get his/her photo, share it with your kids and see the blessings of LIGHT descend on you and yours. Then you yourself will be a candle that will light other candles near you and that blaze of light from a million compassionate candles will put so much spiritual energy (ask Siouxrose, she knows how the powers of LIGHT work) flow into all the endeavours, that all of a sudden, Cindy Sheehan will have 100,000 people of LIGHT marching with her fearlessly against the Darkness. If you can in your town or area start a relief agency with even $100 from friends and neighbours for Iraq and Darfur and Afghanistan, then you will see it grow. all this sounds meaningless to scientistic (not scientific - - they are not hubristic) people, but I am a tarined scientist, logician and mathematician and I do not come to these beliefs without a foundation in logic and reason. The LIGHT provides such a foundation if one seeks it, but it is not necessary to receive LIGHT. Compassion, on the other hand, is absolutely necessary, because any “spirituality” without compassion and the willingness to share what you have with others less fortuniate, is simply hypocrisy and darkness as the “Christain Right” displays.
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy”
Aymon
Collaborators will be identified and shot. The American response will be to wash our hands of the matter.
AYMON: I am always impacted by what you say, and grateful that a mind as expansive as yours (and coupled with the open heart compassion that is so important in the balanced utilization of a powerful, incisive intellect) shares with us in this forum. Namaste! Sioux
“Callousness about the lives of non white peoples, even those that are the direct result of an action by the US government, is a hallmark of the American people.”
I heartily second that . Let me lay it on a bit more: closet white supremacists ,if there be any on this site, should be quite mortified to learn that the writer of the main article here ,is an Indian -and therefore as non-white as they come.
That said , there must be a method to the American establishment’s depravity.
Deliberately ,and very cynically ,setting in motion forces that would (sooner rather than later ) result in a mass exodus ,of the indigenous populations, from the oil-rich lands of Iraq ( and ultimately Iran).Then sending in ‘our own amenable’ folk ( contractors , inner city gangs ,rednecks ,louts and so on )to resettle all such areas .A population strangehold is thus put in place .Thereby ensuring virtually unimpeded oil supplies -for a very long time into the future.To prop up the American way of life.
Far fetched..I don’t think so. Its been tried before -in the Palestine of 1948.
People here are complaining about lack of documentaries by MSM but my main complaint is against Hollywood. Even though the American public has responded admirably to propaganda calls by bush, Hollywood has not seized the moment and offered heroic figures for the public’s entertainment. During WW2 Hollywood had already produced hundreds of movies during the first few years in to the conflict. I say to myself how can you have a war and not have war movies.
Siouxrose:
OM TAT SAT
Aymon
How about adopting an Iraqi orphan who has become an orphan because of our country, the USA? It’s a small thing to do after we slaughtered their parents, but it might help them have a chance at a somewhat normal life.
“scared by adults gone mad, that gets to anyone that has an ounce of sprituality in them.”
well no, anyone that has an ounce of humanity in them. i am not “spirital” and this gets to me bad
godlessrant:
Humanity is the foundation of spirituality, for without the former the latter is meaningless. And one who has humanity is already spiritual. That is the Law of LIGHT.
Peace
Once again I ask why this is even a story? This Bush administration aided by his Republican congress kills and destroys Iraqis lives by the millions. Why would they save the Iraqis? They create as much world-wide fear and terror as possible why because they are caring out the modern Republican Party platform.
Think for a moment, what Republican President do all the Republican candidates at least once a debate refer to, “Ronald The Great Reagan”. By all republican standards George has far surpassed Ronny and should be considered the greatest republican president to date. Let’s review the facts.
The real standards republicans use to measure their Presidents are the following:
(Please remember we only have space for a few highlights, these lists and there support would fill volumes.)
1)The amount of worldwide destruction and terror their administration caused; Reagan Iran-Contra, Bush Iraq war, Afghanistan War, worldwide terror squads. Winner Bush hands down, ps…in his day Reagan/ Old Bushes admin was number 1.
2) The amount of despair and hopelessness caused to the greatest majority of free Americans by; not raising minimum wage, shifting the tax burden to the middle class, cutting social programs; OK I’ll concede this one is a tie, they are both number 1..
3)Allowing the most corporate fraud; (critical category to major party donors) Winner Bush hands down, ps…in his day Reagan/(Old Bushes admin was number 1.
4)Spreading propaganda and destroying Americans freedom and liberty; once again Winner Bush hands down, ps…in his day Reagan/ Old Bushes admin was number 1
5)Finally who maintained the largest most wasteful military budgets while cutting the most social programs and created the greatest amount of deficit spending, yes boys and girl this is the corner stone of any successful modern republican president; Well by now this must sound like a broken record; Winner Bush hands down, Bushes old man number 2, Bushes old mans first term/Reagan’s term) number 3 .
As close as I can tell the reason the Bush administration decided to declare the most horrific terror attack of all-time on the Iraqi people which they titled, “Shock and Awe” was because Rupert Murdoch had convinced the Bush administration that he needed to help England and finish the crusades. Actually I’m not sure about that last statement but it makes about as much sense as the corporate/white house/”free press” stories regarding the most needless, costly, and unjust war in the history of United States of America.
Thank you, Mr. Amitabh Pal, for this very timely article and for laying bare the heartlessness of the US.
Aymon, thank you very much for your wonderful and heartfelt contribution. You have said all that needs to be said and I could not add more - just sincere appreciation.
I remember back not that long ago, when Pelosi made her unauthorized? visit to Syria. I was hoping that she would have addressed the needs of the Iraqis who fled to that country. I never heard a word related to this human crisis.
I remember the blogger Riverbend and the last time she wrote as her family was gathering what they could carry to depart from Iraq. These people are in need of assistance, and have for a long time. This is another failure of our Congress.
“There ARE consequences to your actions. Think VERY carefully before you pretend to be the “decider”.”
Other people are the ones to bear the consequences, sadly.
how much coverage does this issue get in the MSM? almost ZERO. americans know the iraq war is bad, but they know this b/c of what’s happening to our troops. they also know bad things are happening in iraq, bombings, etc., but they really have no idea of the nation-wide catastrophe that has been visited on iraq.
there is a conscious and thorough effort in gov’t and the MSM to keep such knowledge from the american public. ask your average american how many iraqis have died in the war and they are most likely to say around 30,000.
there is a genuine and legitimate fear on the part of our “leaders” that if americans really knew what was going on in iraq, the calls for impeachment and war crimes trials would be overwhelming.
THIS WAR IS NOT ABOUT HELPING PEOPLE, IT’S ABOUT GETTING HANDS ON THEIR OIL!
Not to make light of it, but the mentality of sad- sack Bush, and his psychotic neo-cons masters, being what it is, it wouldn’t surprise me if this callousness is just their way to get even for the fact that the Iraqis didn’t greet US troops with kisses and flowers and parades…as predicted…
much of what is going on regarding the refugees is simply not getting into the MS media…. Take a listen to the shows we’ve been doing from Jordan, Syria and the region regarding refugees: http://www.motherspeak.org/RSR.htm
The shows are grouped by theme so these shows on refugees are under that heading (Refugees) but we do and have done a lot of shows on various perspectives on the war and the devastation. This Monday (tomorrow) we’re running an hour long with Dahr Jamail on the war, the media’s complicity in it, and another perspective on the so-called “civil war” between Shite and Sunni. That show will be on the blog by Tuesday morning if you can
t catch it live. Check out the blog: http://raisingsand.blogspot.com
Wake up! the Bush crime family is callous about his own people.He finds no problem asking for BILLIONS to kill his own people much less Iraqis.But money to heal not with him or satan.
aw c’mon girls and boys … we cant be that bad .. our pet poodles (the english) just paid us the best compliment …
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6920877.stm
Apparently the world owes us !!!!! Go figure …
The world owes us and I’m sure that we will get what we have coming. May we be truly thankful for what we are about to receive!
.
I wonder how many Iraqi children Bush and the Evilgelicals will kill. Millions.
“Runs in the family” with regard to W’s family, does it? How about the damn Klantons. Try on Bill Klanton’s policies in the Balkans that caused tremendous suffering, and yet not one mea culpa yet, and his wife is no damn better. If you have any doubt about the dawg Bill Klanton was in the Balkans, read Lord Owen’s memoir entitled “Balkan Oddyssey.” and this is by someone who actually favored some military intervention there but on a more limited and less confrontational basis. If you would read some anti intervention works, you find out just what a war criminal the “Brother Bill” was in that crisis. It apparently runs in that damn family as well!
Also check what the former Conservative British Prime Mnister Edward Heath said in opposition to such military intervention in Owen’s memoir.
Quite right, Aymon.
I think the Chimp is a homosexual. He’s always grabbing and kissing men, e.g. Joe Lieberman and holding their hands. Now he’s leaning into Gordon Brown like a woman. Here’s a picture of them to illustrate his embarrassing behavior:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20015571/
Notice how he’s leaning over to the right, his body touching Brown’s. I’ll bet Brown can’t wait to get the hell out of here and back to England, away from the nincompoop.
Sorry but if he was homosexual he probably wouldnt be as violent. Gay people (at least the dozens i know) are much more evolved than us friggin heteros !!
Ah, okay. I guess the Chimp is just kissing azz to make himself seem popular and well liked by other leaders. He’s probably used to being hated and reviled all his life.
The saddest thing about the truth of this article is that nowhere in the American media do we see the question being asked “what about the Iraqis?”.
The US INVADED Iraq unprovoked, regardless of why anyone may have tried to justify it with a cause or even 6. This single soliltary fact alone will be the undoing of the US economy in the years to come. We now OWE the Iraqi people some sort of semblance of order when we leave.
Any intelligent person would have already had engaged Saudi Arabia , Iran, and Syria in the effort and would put aside political differences for the sake of people on the ground in Iraq. Ah, but we did not come as liberators did we? No we came as oil thieves disguised as liberators and now our mask has fallen off. This could have been used as the stepping stone for a broader peace in the area, but I think that all along the Bush admin’s goals were chaos in the Middle East and a Sunni and Shiite war which they have now. So in the account of truth, they really have been successful in fomenting chaos and despair among the people and a broader war in the area. This action coupled with more support for Israel’s slaughter of the Palestinians (there own brothers and sisters) has done the opposite of bringing peace or even a feasible plan for it.
So I ask again, “what shall we do FOR THE IRAQI PEOPLE? To date we have done only harm.
“Juxtaposed with these accounts are the heartless words of John Bolton, former ambassador to the United Nations, who is unwilling to admit even the tiniest iota of U.S. responsibility for the situation.
“Our obligation,” he tells Rosen from his air-conditioned office at the American Enterprise Institute, “was to give them new institutions and provide security. We have fulfilled that obligation. I don’t think we have an obligation to compensate for the hardships of war.”
This is utterly astonishing. And this was our ambassador to the UN. How do you think people in this country would react if we were bombed into “shock and awe,” our domestic security agencies dissolved, our professional class removed, our infrastructure destroyed, our basic services halted, and our normal, everday, working lives destroyed? How would we like to be made helpless and hopeless, unable to perform the most elemental tasks, such as going to buy food? Then how would we like being occupied by a military who essentially despised us for our religion and race, considered us all terrorists or potential terrorists, and wanted to control our most important resources? I wonder if John Bolton can imagine that.
Bolton is a “bloody jawed wolf”, as Malcolm used to say, and no one should be shocked at any of the filth that comes out of his mouth. The man is a war criminal, and should be tried as same. Unfortunately, the “democrats” have demonstrated themselves to be quite at peace with such a state of affairs, and so it goes.
We either build a mass united front, made up of the different political factions that compose the working class majority in this country to counter both the democrats and the republicans, or we are finished. It really comes down to this trifling little detail.
Mr.Pal does an admirable job of bringing the refugee crisis of Iraqis to the attention of his readers. I was hoping, however, that he would mention the plight of Iraqi Christians in this conflict. Even though the Christians make up only 2-3% of the prewar population of Iraq, they make up 25% of the Iraqi refugees. In the last 3 years over 50% of the Christian families have had to flee for their lives, with little chance of ever being let back in to their homes after the fighting stops. The remaining Christians are truly “under siege” with little hope of relief. Something should be done to stop their persecution.
We have become repulsive, Europe has become the new America.
sigma.Couldn’t agree more with you.The Christians’ plight is truly tragic -both in the M.E. and in the rest of the Third World.They represent the minority that most wish weren’t even there in the first place.
One would have thought that Western Evangelicals would be sticking up for them ,and moving heaven and earth to ameliorate their truly pitiable plight. Not so. In the blinkered vision of these folks ,a Christian can only be :white, black -or at best Native American or Hispanic.All others are beyond the pale.
(One has long suspected that to Western Christians , all non Western ,non Christians have ’salvation -scalp’ value only as long as they’re ‘heathens’.Once they’ve been successfully converted and brought into the fold , they cease to matter.)
The other sections of the West -the secularists , the atheists, the hedonists and the liberals- couldn’t care a fig. The very Christianity of such people is anathema to them. Hence they’re hardly likely to go into paroxysms of breast beating about their plight.
Its terribly tragic and unfeeling to say so : but their persecution will continue unchecked .And the Western Establishment , despite its professions to the contrary, will not lift even a little finger.
Ironically it was only under enlightened Islamic regimes ( Saracen Rule , Moorish Spain - and ,to stretch a point the Iraq Baathists ) that peoples of different faiths co-existed in relative peace and harmony.
The European Crusaders were especially murderous and genocidal: they massacred ‘em all wholesale -Muslims, Christians and Jews. ( In December 1098 at a place called Mara’et al Naumann ,they took ’shock and awe’ to heights undreamed-of : broiling , roasting and eating the men, women and children of the town .)
Should one expect any better from the modern Western powers - who are after all the genetic descendants of the Crusaders ,and the true inheritors of their ’spiritual’ mantle .