Ridgerunner;
They wouldn’t do without, for oil is the only resource the Arab nations of the Middle East have. They have to sell their oil in order to survive.
I hope so.
How is this dangerous to our allies ? If it’s dangerous to them, why are we the only one’s called to intervene ?
Yeah and Ironically, the Christian populations in Iraq were better off under Saddam, and the one’s in Syria support Assad’s regime.
Inform yourself about the realities in that part of the world over the political ideologies of the GOP and Democrats, who’ll distort information for their own political agendas.
Jim
I think I’m fairly well informed about the realities. Most of what I know comes from people from the region, including Iraqi Christians. One of them is a cousin to Tariq Aziz.
The position of Christians in older times has been insecure off and on, murderous at times. At different points in time, some of the Arab regimes protected Christians, also Jews, and for a utilitarian reason. Since Arab society is tribal, the rulers always had to balance one group against another, never being able to quite trust any. Since Christians and Jews had no significant “constituencies”, they were trusted to serve whatever regime was in power without having any loyalties to any of the Muslim tribal groups that really did have power. They were useful because they were few and helpless. It came at considerable cost, one being that they had to put up with, even approve and participate in, the atrocities of terrible rulers like Saddam.
Tariq Azziz, a Christian, was one of those, though he feared for his life and that of his family every day, without exception. Some accuse him of crimes against humanity, and they’re probably right, at least at the margins. The slightest failure to carry out even the worst acts, would have meant torture and/or death for him and his family. The Muslim/Christian relationship was a tenuous relationship, always, and because, again, the ruler had no reason to fear Christians or Jews, they could be tossed away, tortured or killed without any fear of retribution.
But not all rulers were that way, and some Muslim lands were long ago rendered free of Christians.
Better than being killed out of hand, though. However, it may be noted that, since WWII, and actually for a time before that, the Muslims have killed, thrown out, or otherwise rendered their lands almost entirely free of Jews. The Christians were, and are, living it out on borrowed time in the absence of anything approaching a state that respects human rights.
Now, there are historic exceptions, but not many, and usually they were during periods when western power was so overwhelming that the rulers dared not persecute Christians (of Jews, oftentimes) within their realms. Those days are in the past because the west no longer has the desire to protect Christians anywhere.
