ABOUT THE PRESIDENT'S SPEECH ON THE CRISIS IN IRAQ...

The Kurds are our best friends in the Middle East, and they remained so even after we betrayed them when Bush Sr encouraged them to revolt against Saddam and subsequently refused them help. The Kurds seem like the sanest and most compassionate group in Iraq at the moment, and, if they want a measure of autonomy in Kurdistan, I'd like them have it.

They've taken in Christian refugees who were driven from Mosul by brutal IS and are now accepting Yazidi refugees from Sinjar, where ISIS has taken over by brute force. We are already sending humanitarian aid to Kurdistan, and we are ethically bound to send humanitarian aid to the Yazidis trapped on the mountain.

I'm against violence in all forms and very much against the US policy of supplying arms to the world, and I'm not certain of the consequences of the military support President Obama announced last night, but I cannot condemn the policy. In this one instance, I'm willing to consider the possibility that the arms might help the Kurds continue their humanitarian efforts and help them retain control of Kurdistan. I wish there was an alternative to bombing, but I don't see it, and I do realize it could all go bad.

I am pacific but not 100%.  If I saw a child being abused by an adult, and the only way to save the child was to commit violence against the perpetrator, I think I would do it.  Reasoning from the particular to the general, I arrived at the conclusion not to condemn the president's decision to give military support to the Kurds and the refugees in Iraq, which includes bombing of IS positions.  I realize that inductive reasoning results in answers that are no more than probabilities, and I cannot rest easy in my lack of condemnation, but, for now, that's my position.

And there is the unspeakable horror of the story linked below, which is only one among many brutal assaults by IS on Christians and other minorities in Iraq.

Canon Andrew White, the "Anglican Vicar of Baghdad"

“I’m almost in tears because I’ve just had somebody in my room whose little child was cut in half,” he said. “I baptized his child in my church in Baghdad. This little boy, they named him after me – he was called Andrew.”

Canon Andrew ask for our prayers and our support.  The article includes a link to donate to support the church in Baghdad.