Obama’s Proxy War on Mideast Christians; Syrian Christians in the Crosshairs

Middle East ForumTwo important articles on our country’s foreign policy. The first is from the Middle East Forum:

Obama’s Proxy War on Mideast Christians

With the recent decision to arm the opposition fighting Syrian President Assad, the United States has effectively declared a proxy war on Syria’s indigenous Christians—a proxy war that was earlier waged on Christians in other Mideast nations, resulting in the abuse, death, and/or mass exodus of Christians.

Ironically (if not absurdly) this proxy war on Christians is being presented to the American people as a war to safeguard the “human rights” and “freedoms” of the Syrian people. Left unsaid by the Obama administration is the egregiously inhuman behavior these jihadis visit upon moderate Syrians in general Christians in particular, from bombed churches to kidnapped (and often beheaded) Christians. Days ago they massacred an entire Christian village.

Nor can one argue that the Obama administration is unaware that Christian persecution is an ironclad aspect of empowering jihadis. Both past precedents and current events repeatedly demonstrate this.

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Next up, Eric Metaxas at Breakpoint:

breakpointSyrian Christians in the Crosshairs

On June 23, Francois Murad, a Franciscan priest, and two of his assistants were beheaded by Jabhat al-Nusra, an al Qaeda affiliate in Syria. The killings took place less than two weeks after members of the Syrian Free Army, the main opposition force in that country’s civil war, massacred dozens of Christians in a village near Deir el-Zour.Both atrocities coincided with reports that, after resisting pressure to do so, President Obama had decided to arm Syrian rebels. We’ve said on BreakPoint why this is a bad idea. Sadly, our leaders – both liberals and conservatives – have not gotten the message.

To understand why this is a bad idea, a short history lesson is in order. Syria, like its neighbors Lebanon and Iraq, was created by French and British diplomats from the remains of the Ottoman Empire. The borders were more influenced by how much diplomats had to drink than by demographic and religious facts on the ground.

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