Christians in Iraq.

I came across this just today. It was written by a guy that I've know through the net for a number of years, and while we haven't always agreed on things I believe him have been completely honest in this. This *is* second hand, in that these are the second hands it's been through - I'm one link away from the author - and it's not another urban legend, re-cycled into a christianese "isn't that terrible" scenario.

Nick writes:

This is painful for me to write, being a major supporter of the U.S. military. And I'm not at liberty to devulge my source of this information. But rest assured that it comes from a credible source military inside Iraq, which I personally received. This was not some email floating through the Net.

Apparently U.S. commanders have been refusing to help Iraqi Christian for fear of inciting the Shia and Sunnis. As a result, about 35,000 Iraqi Christians have fled the country, most to Syria.

Most of these were residents of the Baghdad area, and their flight represents a serious loss of intellectual capital. The Christians were shielded under Sadam, who used their services as maids and servants in his palaces, because they were the only people he could trust not to kill him.

Once Sadam fell the Christians became exposed to Islamic persecution. The horrible irony of all this is that our military is there in the name of freedom and they are turning their backs on Christians being persecuted. The thought that we are patronizing the intolerant and even murderous spirit of Islam at the expense of Christians is warped.

The request I received from concerned Christian U.S. military commanders in Iraq was, "Please pray" for a reversal of this policy. So I am passing along this request to you. This is very serious on a few levels. First is that by refusing to protect the Christians, we are cursing our own military efforts, regardless of how right or noble the mission may be. We need God's blessing and can't afford to operate without it. Secondly, if this information really gets out to the public, it will really sour the support that Christians have been giving to this War On Terror. And we could find Believers joining the anti-war Leftist in protest against our own government. The last thing we need to be doing is crawling in bed with those people. I think it would be a good idea to write some letters to any Legislators we know, who might be in a position to confront the President with this matter.

"Please pray" is the best request I think he can make of us in this scenario.