Oh, that Peace-Prize-winning Foreign-policy Wizard, BHO. What would life be like without him?
I think of the deteriorating situation in Syria, where groups on both Left (Human Rights Watch) and Right sides of the spectrum actually agree on something! They are expressing objections to American Support of the Syrian Rebels.
For some of us, potential parallels between arming these rebels, and the historical mistake of arming a certain group of “Freedom Fighters” in Afghanistan as they fought back against Soviet Russia (you may remember Osama Bin Laden?) is enough to give one pause and concern.
The stark horror of this struck home that much more for me this week as I read a passage from William Dalrymple’s book “From the Holy Mountain”.
Dalrymple is a travel writer, whose goal was to trace the steps of pilgrimage that a significant Eastern Orthodox author took shortly before the region was swallowed up by Islam. The tour took him through various places in the Middle East, including Turkey and Syria. (The book was published in 1997.)
When commenting on Armenians who had fled the genocide that killed some 1.5 Million of their people, (see: fellow Clasher Audrey Russo’s Orphan Rug Story) some stories about daring escapes and rescues were included. Then the his story shifts to Syria, which was a safe haven for Christians fleeing such oppression.
What follows is an excerpt from his book, the author speaking with a Christian refugee in Syria.
“And do you think the Christians are safe in Syria today?”
“Christians are better off in Syria than anywhere else in the Middle East … Other than Lebanon, this is the only country in the region where a Christian can really feel the equal of a Muslim — and Lebanon, of course has many other problems. In Syria there is no enmity between Christian and Muslim. If Syria were not here, we would be finished. Really. It is a place of sanctuary, a haven for all the Christians: for the Nestorians and Chhaldeans driven out of Iraq, the Syrian Orthodox and the Armenians driven out of Turkey, even some Palestinian Christians driven out of the Holy Land by the Israelis. Talk to people here: you will find that what I say is true.” (“From the Holy Mountain” pg. 150)
Where do we stand now?
How does that compare with this account of persecution given today? Where Christians dare not leave their homes on Fridays? The freedom and peace once enjoyed there was destroyed by … wait for it … the Arab Spring.
Wait, isn’t that the same Arab Spring that Obama celebrated as some kind of a dawning of a new day? I suppose that “hope and change” doesn’t extend to the lives of minorities who fear for their own lives, not to mention the virtue of their wives and daughters.
Support the Muslim Brotherhood. Great idea.
Thanks, Obama. Thanks heaps.
