Christians driven out of Iraq

Dan Simpson

An estimated 300,000 Iraqi Christians have been driven out of Iraq since the American invasion in 2003.  The latest wave of 30,000 are now leaving Mosul.  These are Christians who have lived and practiced their religion in Iraq since the time of Christ.

It was not the intention of the Bush administration in invading Iraq to drive these people out.  It is nonetheless a clear by-product of the invasion and occupation.  The religious strife which the war and the occupation have prompted led almost inevitably to persecution of the Christian minority there, who had  lived there pretty much in peace during the period of secularist Ba'ath Party rule.

The irony is the pious, Crusader tone taken by Mr. Bush in promoting the war, which has had this unfortunate result.