THE HEARTBREAKING STORY OF CHRISTIANS IN IRAQ

From the Guardian:

When George W Bush sent the US into Iraq in 2003, he believed he would be replacing Saddam Hussein with a peaceful, pro-American Arab democracy that would naturally look to the Christian west for support. In reality, seven years on, it appears that he has instead created a highly radicalised pro-Iranian sectarian killing field, where most of the Iraqi Christian minority has been forced to flee abroad.

This week saw new levels of violence directed at Iraq's Christians. Eight days after the attack on Baghdad's main Catholic church that left more than 50 worshippers dead, militants detonated more than 14 bombs in Christian suburbs, killing at least four and wounding about 30. Since then the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), an al-Qaida front, has warned of a new wave of attacks on Christians "wherever they can be reached … We will open upon them the doors of destruction and rivers of blood."
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The Christian community in Iraq is one of the oldest in the world: according to tradition it was St Thomas and his cousin Addai who first brought Christianity to Mesopotamia, soon after the crucifixion. At the council of Nicea, where the words of the creed were thrashed out in 325AD, there were more bishops from Mesopotamia than from western Europe.

From Christians of Iraq:

According to UN statistics, 1.5 million Christians of different sects were living in Baghdad before the American invasion. “The majority of Christians left Iraq because of religious persecution by extremists,” Joe Obayda, an Iraqi ex-pat living in England told The Media Line.

“Today there are less than 500,000 Christians left in Iraq.” Obayda is a member of the executive council of Iraqi Christians In Need (ICIN), a British charity set up in May 2007 to address the influx of Christians leaving Iraq. He said that his charity helped both Christian Iraqi refugees in neighboring Arab countries and internally displaced Christians in Iraq. Obayda said that his cousin was forced to flee Iraq after militants tried to forcefully convert his daughters to Islam and demanded money from him.

He added that the United States was partially to blame for the plight of Iraqi Christians. “The Americans did not foresee the problems that would occur [as a result of the invasion], even though they should have,” he said. “Now that the Americans have left Iraq, the Christians will become a greater target than they already are.”

France, the country decried by the pope for its secularism, is welcoming Christians wounded in the recent attacks, according to John Chilton at The Lead:

The Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon, president and co-founder of AEMO, and bishop-in-charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, expressed his thanks for the rapid response of the French government in this case. "In offering refuge to the victims of this latest assault, we are making more than a gesture. We are also protesting this egregious violence inflicted on fragile religious minorities in Iraq, and indeed, throughout the Middle East," he said.

Secular Italy has also begun to admit wounded Iraqi Christians into their country. Kurdish leader, Massoud Barzani, in northern Iraq, "...wants to make clear that the Chaldean Catholics are welcome in the northern part of the nation, and says he welcomes Chaldean families with open arms."

I Googled, "US welcomes/admits Iraqi Christians" and found nothing, but perhaps I missed the stories. George Bush & Co., what about the plight of the Christians in Iraq? Any comments? Any regrets for the unintended consequences for Christians in Iraq?

President Obama, when will we hear from you about actions to help and support Iraqi Christians beyond deploring the suffering and death they have already endured?

H/T to DP at The World of Doorman-Priest for prodding me to address this tragic story.