Yesterday, Michael McGough of the Los Angeles Times wrote an opinion piece titled “Bush’s Middle East ‘crusade’ hasn’t been very good for Christians.”
If the title wasn’t enough to give an indication of where he was heading, he also finished his piece with the following inaccurate phrase:
“It’s ironic that many Americans who complain about a ‘war on Christians’ in the Middle East supported Bush’s invasion of Iraq and also agitate for U.S. military action to depose Assad.”
Just this week in Iraq, CBS News reported that at least 37 Christians were murdered by “militants” in “three separate Christmas Day bombings in Baghdad.”
On the very same day, the New York Times reported,
“The United States is quietly rushing dozens of Hellfire missiles and low-tech surveillance drones to Iraq to help government forces combat an explosion of violence by a Qaeda-backed insurgency that is gaining territory in both western Iraq and neighboring Syria.”
Although many radical leftists like to rewrite history on Iraq, it would be wise to remember that even before George Bush came into office, former President Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senators Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, Ted Kennedy, Jay Rockefeller, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry among others all made bold statements warning about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
For example, in 1998, President Bill Clinton said, as reported by CNN,
“If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction program.”
As reported in the Congressional Records in 1998, a group of senators led by Democratic Senator Carl Levin, wrote in part:
“Mr. President, today, along with Senators McCain, Lieberman, Hutchison and twenty-three other Senators, I am sending a letter to the President to express our concern over Iraq’s actions and urging the President ‘after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq’s refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs.”’ [emphasis added]
Other examples can be found at Gather. It should also be noted that Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Harry Reid and Charles Schumer, among many other Democrats, voted for military intervention in Iraq.
To refer to Iraq as “Bush’s war” is not accurate and reflects a political agenda. However, President Obama’s decision to pull out U.S. troops from Iraq has been devastating for Iraq.
In October, Eli Lake and Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast wrote,
“Obama said Iraq could stand on its own after the last U.S. soldiers left in 2011. Now Iraq’s leader [Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, pictured] wants help to defeat the Qaeda affiliate that has grown strong in America’s absence.”
Furthermore, there were very few conservatives who supported President Obama’s and Secretary of State John Kerry’s push to conduct military strikes in Syria. Although prominent members of the Republican establishment favored a military strike along with President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry, the Tea Party in general was not supportive, as discussed at the New York Times.
McGough astonishingly seeks to fault President Bush for the ongoing and mostly unreported actions of Islamic extremists in Iraq, where Christians, along with perceived homosexuals and women, are targets of horrific violence.
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Check out her news and political commentary at Tavern Keepers, Gather and the Examiner (National Conservative) and the Examiner (Tampa Conservative) for news you won’t find in the mainstream media.
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