[lit-ideas] Re: FW: Read and pass...Fwd. 'Stay the Course!' is not enough
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 17:37:13 -0800 (PST)
I am completely seriously wondering how the religious fanatics who support =
President Bush feel about the way the war is going in Iraq. The reason I'm=
wondering is because Bush consulted with God before invading, and God appr=
oved. Bush also turned it into a war of good against evil. How do the fun=
damentalists explain how poorly the war is going. Do they even explain it?=
Do they wonder where God is in this? I am wondering in absolute seriousn=
ess.
Andy=20
-----Original Message-----
From: Eternitytime1@xxxxxxx
Sent: Jan 7, 2005 4:25 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: FW: Read and pass...Fwd. 'Stay the Course!' is no=
t enough
Hi,
That was interesting. We'll see what will happen or if anyone, really, wi=
ll=20
pay attention. He's no longer the 'voice' he used to be--he's not=20
Religiously Right enough, actually. But, he is a conservative Republican, =
in many=20
respects, and I do think there are many moderate Republicans played the ga=
me with=20
Bush over the election (Sen Bond in Missouri comes to mind) and who are a=
=20
tad worried about a number of decisions that have been made...
=20
But, I read these two pieces today and they really did make me wonder how =
=20
"Democracy" as envisioned by Pres Bush and cohorts can happen in Iraq.
=20
The Fallujah piece--well, for a country whose war has ended, this simply =
=20
defies my imagination. I just imagine what would happen were the same thi=
ng to=20
happen here. =20
I cannot imagine what it would be like to be a mom there. It just hurts=
=20
too much to imagine that the USA would have decided to completely=20
annihilate the living situation of so many---when they had stated that=20
there were what? only 3000 insurgents in the entire city. How many, again=
,=20
were living in that city before we (ie. the USA troops) decided it had to =
be=20
flattened--starting with the hospitals?
Is this what we do after a war is *over*? =20
And then I read the piece about the Christians in Iraq and wondered where =
=20
the voices were who would speak up for them? Perhaps the USA inadvertently=
=20
does, indeed, want an Islamic nation to exist--as long as the government is=
=20
(theoretically or for a time) in favor of its policies?
=20
I don't know. I admit to being a bit at a loss about the whole situation=
=20
right now...
I always thing about how I can so easily weep with Rachel (and other moms) =
=20
for her (their) children--and then wish for a Goddess Kali to come to the =
=20
rescue,
Marlena in Missouri
http://www.irinnews.org/print.asp?ReportID=3D44904
IRAQ: Death toll in Fallujah rising, doctors say
=A9 IRIN
An IRCS convoy going to Fallujah, as needs are still not being met.
FALLUJAH, 4 Jan 2005 (IRIN) - "It was really distressing picking up=20
dead bodies from destroyed homes, especially children. It is the most=20
depressing situation I have ever been in since the war started," Dr=20
Rafa'ah al-Iyssaue, director of the main hospital in Fallujah city, some=
=20
60 km west of Baghdad, told IRIN. =20
The hospital emergency team has recovered more than 700 bodies=20
from rubble where houses and shops once stood, according to al-
Iyssaue.
He added that more than 550 were women and children. He said a=20
very small number of men were found in these places and most were=20
elderly. =20
Doctors at the hospital claim that many bodies had been found in a =20
mutilated condition, some without legs or arms. Two babies were found=20
at their homes and are believed to have died from malnutrition,=20
according to a specialist at the hospital.=20
Al-Iyssaue added these numbers were only from nine neighbourhoods=20
of the city and that 18 others had not yet been reached, as they were=20
waiting for help from the Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) to make it=20
easier for them to enter.=20
He explained that many of the dead had been already buried by=20
civilians from the Garma and Amirya districts of Fallujah after approval=
=20
from US-led forces nearly three weeks ago, and those bodies had not=20
been counted.=20
IRCS officials told IRIN they needed more time to give an accurate=20
death toll, adding that the city was completely uninhabitable.=20
Ministry of Health officials told IRIN they were in the process of=20
investigating the number of deaths, but claimed that a very small=20
number of women and children were killed, contrary to what doctors in=20
Fallujah had said. They added they were working together with the US-
led forces to rehabilitate the health system inside the city. =20
Residents who have returned to their homes after waiting for hours to =20
enter the city found that most of their homes had been totally destroyed =
=20
by the fighting which started nearly a month ago between the US-led =20
forces and insurgents who are said to be under the control of Abu-
Mussab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist wanted by the Iraqi=20
government. =20
"I've been here for more than six hours and until now could not enter =20
the city, even after the fighting finished in our area. There is no respect=
=20
for civilians," Samirah al-Jumaili, a mother of seven, told IRIN. =20
The situation in Fallujah was still not clear. According to Col. Clark =20
Mathew, spokesman for the US Marines, night time attacks continued=20
in some areas of the city. US forces have informed residents not to=20
leave their homes after the imposed curfew of 1800 to 0600.=20
Mathew explained that most attacks were in areas where US troops=20
have bases in order to secure the city, but added that by the end of this=
=20
month the situation should be under control and that the reconstruction=20
of Fallujah would then begin. "We hope that very soon reconstruction=20
of Fallujah will start and families will feel a new life," Mathew added.=
=20
"The US troops are saying that soon Fallujah will be rebuilt. I believe=20
that this city won't offer a minimum of living conditions until another=20
year has passed. I am still searching for what they have been calling=20
democracy," Muhammad Kubaissy, a civilian from Fallujah, told IRIN.=20
His home and two shops were destroyed in the fighting. =20
"They came to bring us freedom, but all Iraqis are now prisoners in =20
their own homes," he added.
"It is impossible to live in Fallujah. There is no water, electricity or=
=20
sewage treatment. Even hospitals cannot afford the minimum of=20
security for all families of the city. We don't have enough medicine and=
=20
you can feel the bad smell of bodies in the air," al-Iyssaue added.=20
Residents of Fallujah have been asking the Iraqi government to allow=20
journalists and TV reporters to enter the city in order to show the=20
reality.=20
The government will only allow journalists to visit with a special identit=
y=20
card, saying it is for their own safety. Many journalists have been=20
turned away from Fallujah after not receiving authorisation from US-
troops guarding
the city.=20
"We need someone here to show the reality of Fallujah. Even when=20
some journalists are here they are being followed by the Marines. We=20
need someone to help us. The world should see the real picture of=20
Fallujah," Sheikh Abbas al-Zubeiny told IRIN.=20
MB (again): and then there is this:
=20
>January 06, 2005, 7:30 a.m.
>Christian Crisis
>ChaldoAssyrian Christians may soon leave Iraq en masse.
>
>by Nina Shea & James Y. Rayis
>
>Iraq's Christian minority is being driven out of its ancestral=20
>homeland by a wave of persecution as devastating as any tsunami. In=20
>less than four weeks, a pivotal election will take place in Iraq=20
>that represents this community's best hope for finding a secure home=20
>there, yet they find themselves marginalized and pushed aside in the=20
>electoral process =F7 not only by their tormentors but, perhaps=20
>inadvertently, by the U.S. government. These Christians, who are=20
>both pro-Western and pro-democracy, need our help so that they can=20
>build a future in their native land with a modicum of security and=20
>freedom. Without it, they will leave, and U.S. Iraq policy will be=20
>dealt a setback so severe it may never recover.
>
>Tens of thousands of Iraq's nearly one million ChaldoAssyrians, as=20
>this indigenous cultural and linguistic ethnic group is called under=20
>Iraq's Transitional Administrative Law, have fled into exile over=20
>the past few months. Their leaders fear that, like the Iraqi Jews =F7=20
>who accounted for a third of Iraq's population until facing=20
>relentless persecution in the middle of the last century =F7 they may=20
>leave en masse. Though many Iraqis, particularly moderates, suffer=20
>violence, the ChaldoAssyrians, along with the smaller non-Muslim=20
>minorities of Sabean Mandeans and Yizidis, may be as a group all but=20
>eradicated from Iraq. Their exodus began in earnest in August after=20
>the start of a terrorist bombing campaign against their churches. =20
>With additional church bombings right before Christmas, hundreds =20
>more Christian families escaped in fear to Jordan and Syria.
>
>In the run up to elections, Sunni terrorists and insurgents have=20
>targeted the ChaldoAssyrians with particular ferocity, linking them=20
>to the West. The main Assyrian Christian news agency =20
><http://aina.org/>AINA.org reported last week that the kidnapping =20
>tally for Christians now ranges in the thousands, with ransom =20
>payments averaging $100,000 each. One who could not afford the =20
>payment, 29-year-old Laith Antar Khanno, was found beheaded in Mosul =20
>on December 2, two weeks after his kidnapping. Cold-blooded =20
>assassinations of Christians are also on the rise. Prominent=20
>Assyrian surgeon and professor Ra'aad Augustine Qoryaqos was shot =20
>dead by three terrorists while making his rounds in a Ramadi clinic =20
>on December 8. That same week two other Christian businessmen from =20
>Baghdad, Fawzi Luqa and Haitham Saka, were abducted from work and =20
>murdered.
>
>Both Sunni and Shiite extremists who seek to impose their codes of=20
>behavior have been ruthless toward the Christians, throwing acid in =20
>the faces of women without the hijab (veil) and gunning down the =20
>salesclerks at video and liquor stores. In the north, Kurdish =20
>administrators have withheld U.S. reconstruction funds from =20
>ChaldoAssyrian areas, and, together with local peshmerga forces, =20
>have confiscated some Christian farms and villages. Of the $20 =20
>billion that American taxpayers generously provided for the =20
>reconstruction of Iraq two years ago, none so far has gone to =20
>rebuild ChaldoAssyrian communities. The State Department is =20
>distributing these funds exclusively to the Arab- and Kurdish-run =20
>governorates =F7 the old Saddam Hussein power structure =F7 who fail to =
=20
>pass on the ChaldoAssyrian share.
>
>Though Iraq's president, prime minister, and Grand Ayatollah Sistani=20
>have all denounced the attacks against the Christians, the=20
>persecution has not abated. The ChaldoAssyrians have endured much=20
>throughout the last century in Iraq, including brutal Arabization=20
>and Islamization campaigns. But this current period may see their=20
>last stand as a cohesive community.
>
>Should the ChaldoAssyrian community disappear from Iraq, it would=20
>mean the end of their Aramaic language (spoken by Jesus), and their=20
>customs, rites, and culture. A unique part of Christian patrimony=20
>would disappear along with this first-century church. The United=20
>States would have presided over the destruction of one of the=20
>world's oldest Christian communities. Its reverberations would be=20
>keenly felt just beyond Iraq's borders. As Christian scholar Habib=20
>Malik wrote last month in the daily press of his native Lebanon, if=20
>the democratic project of Iraq ends in dismal failure for the =20
>ChaldoAssyrians, the future will be bleak for all the historic =20
>churches of the Middle East. No wonder Pope John Paul II used his =20
>public appearances on both Christmas and New Year's to express =20
>"great apprehension" and "profound regret" about the situation in =20
>Iraq.
>
>Further loss of ChaldoAssyrian influence in Iraq would also have=20
>dire implications for Iraq itself and for American policy. The=20
>ChaldoAssyrians are a disproportionately skilled and educated group,=20
>and they also possess that increasingly scarce trait in the Middle=20
>East: the virtue of toleration. They are a natural political bloc=20
>for building a democracy with minority protections and individual =20
>rights. Their presence bolsters Muslim moderates who claim religious =20
>pluralism as a rationale for staving off governance by Islamic =20
>sharia law.
>
>The ChaldoAssyrians who continue to tough it out in Iraq do so=20
>desperately clinging to the hope that liberal democracy will take=20
>root there. They and their communities in the American diaspora,=20
>numbering around 450,000, are stirring with activity in preparation=20
>for the elections at the end of January. These elections will choose=20
>a National Assembly that will draft the country's permanent =20
>constitution. They are eager to see individual rights to religious =20
>freedom and all fundamental freedoms carried over from the interim =20
>constitution into the permanent government.
>
>It is in the direct political interest of the United States to keep=20
>the ChaldoAssyrians in Iraq and ensure they have a voice in the=20
>political process unfolding over the next year. Yet U.S. policy=20
>toward Iraq's valuable ChaldoAssyrian allies seems to be one of=20
>utter indifference.
>
>While Iraq's hard-line Shiite parties are heavily financed by Iran,=20
>Kurdish leaders have long been bankrolled by the U.S., and Sunni=20
>insurgents are funded by Syria, the pro-democracy ChaldoAssyrians=20
>have no sponsors. The U.S. policy of providing democracy-building=20
>funds to political parties in emerging democracies, made legendary=20
>with Solidarity in Poland, ended a decade ago. The U.S. government=20
>is taking steps to compensate one religious minority that might fare=20
>poorly in the election. According to press reports, the U.S. =20
>administration has called for assembly seats to be set aside for the =20
>Sunni minority, which is boycotting the elections after warnings by =20
>extremist Sunni leaders. But no provisions have been made for =20
>ChaldoAssyrian Christians, who, unlike many insurgent Sunnis, work =20
>for the Coalition rather than build roadside bombs against it.
>
>In short, ChaldoAssyrian candidates and parties are alone and =20
>without funds. If these Christians fail to win seats in the =20
>assembly, they will have no direct say in the critical drafting of =20
>the country's permanent constitution. Don't expect the United States =20
>to speak up for them =F7 or for other moderates.
>
>The same lackadaisical approach to individual and minority rights is=20
>shown in America's approach to the drafting of Iraq's permanent=20
>constitution, where it has adopted de facto a policy of strict=20
>neutrality. The State Department and the U.S. Agency for=20
>International Development are funding programs to provide outside=20
>legal and expert advice to assist in this drafting. These=20
>"independent" contractors are not supposed to exert any influence to =20
>ensure constitutional protections for individual rights to religious =20
>freedom, women's equality, or any other basic human right. As one =20
>such U.S.-funded advisor explained in an L.A. Times op-ed last =20
>month: "Outsiders should not... seek to prevent Shiite parties from =20
>advancing models for an Islamic republic." The only such existent =20
>model, of course, is the Islamic Republic of Iran =F7 a country so =20
>devoid of individual human rights that its dissidents are sentenced =20
>to death for blasphemy, the "crime of thinking," and whose governing =20
>ideology is explicitly hostile to American interests.
>
>The rationale for this is that the focus should be on "process," not=20
>on "imposing values" =F7 that is they are not concerned about the=20
>outcome, only how it is achieved. A lesson of apartheid South Africa=20
>is that the rule of law only goes so far in providing for a fair and=20
>humane society. The U.S. Commission on International Religious=20
>Freedom, an independent federal agency, wrote an urgent letter on=20
>Iraq's religious minorities to President Bush last month, protesting=20
>this approach and recommending that the administration "give clear=20
>directives to American officials and recipients of U.S.=20
>democracy-building grants" to advocate the inclusion of religious=20
>freedom and other fundamental human rights in the permanent =20
>constitution.
>
>Over 1,300 American soldiers have given their lives so far in Iraq.=20
>We owe it to them and to Iraqis =F7 many of whom have also paid with=20
>their lives supporting the Coalition =F7 to take our policy goal of=20
>democratizing Iraq seriously. One way is to level the playing field=20
>in the political arena for the ChaldoAssyrian community. We should=20
>be helping all candidates whose political ideology is based on an=20
>acceptance of liberal democracy and individual religious freedom and=20
>other fundamental human rights =F7 even if they are Christian.
>
>There is an urgent need for immediate private funding to help=20
>pro-democracy ChaldoAssyrian candidates and voters in the January 30=20
>elections. The private response to southeast Asia's tsunami victims=20
>proves that concerned individuals can make a critical difference.=20
>Only a small fraction of that generous outpouring is needed to keep=20
>the ChaldoAssyrians politically competitive =F7 through voter=20
>education, candidate spots on television and radio, campaign =20
>literature, get-out-the-vote efforts, and other election essentials. =20
>Tax-deductible donations for this purpose can be sent to: Iraq =20
>Freedom Account, <http://www.aanf.org/>Assyrian American National =20
>Federation, 5550 North Ashland, Chicago, IL 60640.
>
>=F7 Nina Shea is the director of Freedom House's=20
_http://www.freedomhouse.org/religion/>Center_ (http://www.freedomhouse.org=
/religion/>Center) for=20
Religious Freedom.=20
>James Y. Rayis, an Atlanta lawyer, is vice chair of the=20
Chicago-based ChaldoAssyrian American Advocacy Council.
>
> This article appeared in NRO on Jan. 6, 2005
> =20
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