Monday, December 03, 2007

60 Minutes: Reverend Canon White says: The situation is clearly worse in Iraq now for Christians

Logan Murphy, Crooks and Liars: Scott Pelley’s disturbing report on 60 Minutes shows just one angle of the carnage that continues in Iraq despite the surge — the cleansing of Iraqi Christians. Pelley interviews Andrew White, a minister who suffers from Multiple Sclerosis and runs one of the few remaining Christian churches left in the country. (Click for the 60 Minutes vid.) Transcript:

"The situation now is clearly worse” than under Saddam, White replied.

“There’s no comparison between Iraq now and then,” he told Pelley. “Things are the most difficult they have ever been for Christians. Probably ever in history. They’ve never known it like now.”

“Wait a minute, Christians have been here for 2,000 years,” Pelley remarked.

“Yes,” White said. “And it’s now the worst it has ever been,” Pelley replied.

White is forced to hold his services underground (you won’t see many adult males as they have all been killed or driven from the country) and risks his life every day to help his parishioners and says life for Iraqi Christians is infinitely worse now than under Saddam. Many Christians who are lucky enough to make it out of the country alive end up in Syrian ghettos, still fearing for their lives and with little hope for the future.

The Bush administration and our liberal media tell us the surge in Iraq is working, but the world knows that is a lie. The surge may be helping with security in some parts of the country, but it has come with immeasurable costs to the people of Iraq in the form of ethnic cleansing and a humanitarian crisis for many millions of people, that should anger and sicken us all. Of course, the plight of Iraqi Christians are just part of this appalling tragedy. Iraqis of all faiths are still being slaughtered and driven from their homes and country daily, by a civil war we allowed to happen and continues to rage on, uninterrupted by the surge.

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