...“By last week, most Christians in Mosul had already taken a fourth option—evacuation. Their departure marks the end of a continuous Christian tradition in Mosul. For thousands of years, Mosul has been a center for Christians, particularly for Assyrians, an ethnic group that predates the Arab conquest of Mesopotamia. Indeed, the ancient Assyrian capital of Nineveh, where the Prophet Jonah preached, lies across the Tigris River. Christianized in apostolic times,...."
Yah, well. Better fled than dead, I suppose.
...As recently as a decade ago, tens of thousands of Christians lived in Mosul, some of them descendants of victims of the genocide the Ottoman Empire perpetrated against Assyrians, as well as Armenians and Greeks, during World War I. After this weekend, virtually none remain. On Saturday, ISIS expelled the fifty-two Christian families still in the city, after first requiring them to leave behind all their valuables. For good measure, ISIS also burned an 1800-year-old church and the Catholic bishop’s residence, along with its library and manuscript collection.”...
No stone left unturned by the IslamoNazis.
So. What about George Weigel and
...If you’ve been reading FT long enough then you’ll recall all the symposia on “Just War,” which increasingly became showcases for Weigel’s and Novak’s brand of American preemptive interventionism. Their calls to arms brazenly went against John Paul II’s unequivocal opposition to both our adventures in the Middle East.
Umnh-huh. Pre-emptive just war. Pre-emptive defense, right?
(That's something Mike McCarthy should be told about for next season's Packers playbook!)
Anyhoooo....we now see the end-game of the Weigel/Novak modernificated Just War Theory. Iraq is in tatters, a ~2,000 year Christian presence is over and done, and blood roars into the sewers of Iraqi streets.
John Paul II was not a pacifist. He knew what war could and could not do. It is critical, MOST important, VERY much germane to know that the Vatican has the single largest humint operation that the world has ever seen. The Vatican has people on the ground in every country inhabited by mankind. In comparison, CIA is a fart in the wind.
So when JPII forcefully reminds a US President that war would be folly, he has reasons--and intel to back it up.
But Weigel, Novak, and Bombs-Away McCain--not to mention Billy Kristol, the armchair warrior--all knew more than the Pope.
I'm sure they're putting up the refugees in their homes as we speak, right?
Michael Novak, not Robert.
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