Christmas in Iraq
There was no midnight mass among Christians in Iraq again this year. Too dangerous.
And of the estimated 800,000 Christians in the country in 2002, as few as half, 400,000, may be left. Many have fled to Syria, joining the 1.5 million Iraqi refugees there.
Even some Christians still in the country have been internally displaced.
None of the feel good human interest programs I saw on cable news this weekend focused on the displacement of indigenoous Christians.
If it is not on TV it doesn't exist.
posted by Juan Cole @ 12/25/2007 12:40:00 AM
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9 Comments:
Bush keeps talking about the freedom he has brought to Iraq. He insists that Iraqis need to thank us Americans for the freedom we have brought them.
Who in America is still buying this line of pure BS?
A increasing number of us don't watch TV, or very little, and we exist, I think.
I read somewhere that the Iraqi government counts something like 5 million orphans in Iraq. I would call that an implicit validation of the Lancet numbers regarding deaths caused by the US invasion and occupation.
Was it worth it, America?
I suspect that information (about the number of orphans) didn't get much media play in America either.
What fascinates me, though, is that sometimes the media will acknowledge a story in a backhanded way. For example, I don't recall the issue of (apparently) illegitimate and massive use of cluster bombs by the Israeli military in the attack on Lebanon being much of a story in the media. But when the Israeli military cleared itself (!) of any wrongdoing in the matter, I saw a big headline about THAT on Yahoo yesterday! It was like they were reporting on the story in reverse!
Liberal Grace,
you ask who is still buying the line that President Bush brought freedom to the Iraqis, and that they should be grateful.
I live in heartland USA. Many of my neighbors believe it. There is a core of people in this country who want to believe in Bush. They will not be dissuaded by "facts" in the "liberal media."
Perhaps you could abandon your hopes of getting everyone on board. Maybe it could be enough that only 70% of the population agrees with you.
After all, what percentage still believes that President Reagan did not cut a deal with Ayatollah Khomeini to continue to hold Americans hostage in Iran in 1980 in order to help his election campaign ?
How many refuse to this day to acknowledge the role of Bush 41 in those negotiations ?
They must deny "facts" that suggest Ronnie Reagan bartered with the lives of US diplomats and Marines - with our enemies - to portray Carter as weak to gain an advantage with voters.
Many folks, including some for fascism and some against, choose their conclusions first, and then fit the facts around them. It will ever be so.
Avid Student
Some Iraqi Christians celebrated (in Hamdaniya). Look at the size of that church!
Christians in the Kurdish part of Iraq where able to celebrate Christmas. I saw a catholic service in the Barzani controlled sat tv channel. I think the service was held at a church in Duhok.
The funny thing is that Iraqi Kurdish TV channels do not show any Islamic services celebrating Islamic events like Eid.
Supporters of the war, both "liberal" and "conservative" define freedom in terms of privatization and the free movement of capital. This is a colonial occupation and the Iraqi people matter about as much as the earthlings on "Independence Day" mattered to the alien invaders.
The only debate between the two corporate parties is who can manage the white man's burden better. Looks like the dems have won that debate for now, at least with Wall St. They are raising more money than slobbering christian facsists on the "other side of the aisle".
Prof. Cole, you really need to clarify the statement about no midnight mass. I just saw an AP article that claims exactly the opposite.
AFP and AP have a difference of opinion, then. They'll have to sort it out.
Look, the point of my posting was that you have a lot of deserving Iraqis, including Iraqi Christians, who have been displaced by an American war, and Americans have a responsibility to help them.
I don't see anybody in the American corporate media owning up to this responsibility. I see fluff pieces about Christmas in Iraq.
Even if there are a few neighborhoods where you can go out at night, in a lot of the country it is still very dangerous, especially if you are a minority in your district.
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