Iraq

Iraqi Muslims: Christians, come home

Embedded freelance writer and photographer Michael Yon reports from Baghdad that as a Chaldean Catholic church in Baghdad re-opened last week, Muslims filled the front pews as a sign that they wish their Catholic brothers and sisters to come home. They were joined by members of the US 2-12 Infantry and the Iraqi 3rd Division who secured the neighborhood, as well as Bishop Shlemon Warduni, Auxiliary Bishop of the St. Peter the Apostle Catholic Diocese for Chaldeans and Assyrians in Iraq.

Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, “Come back to Iraq. Come home.” They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. “Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.”

Yon quotes the ranking American soldier, Lt. Colonel Stephen Michael, as saying that when al Quaeda came to the neighborhood to harass and then kill the Christians, the Muslims stood up for them, but eventually many had to flee.

I’d also encourage you to look closely at the photos of the liturgy being celebrated: ad orientem and other clues that tell us that innovations of the past 30 years in the West have not reach the Chaldean Catholics.

What’s Syria been hiding?

Rod writes about Israel’s recent airstrikes in Syria. which have been virtually unreported and unremarked upon, except in the blogosphere, as far as I can tell.

An ex-Army friend writes this morning with deep unease about the recent event in which Israeli jets attacked a purported Syrian nuke site. He wonders if it’s connected to this week’s assassination of a Christian parliamentarian in Lebanon. We’re trying to figure out what just happened in Syria. It doesn’t make sense to me that Syria is trying to start its own nuke program. Surely they can’t be under any illusions that Israel would allow that. Maybe they were doing precisely that … or maybe, as my friend suggests, the Syrians were planning to get nuclear material to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

What really happened here? Any guesses?

I think it’s quite clear what got attacked: The places that Syria was storing Saddam’s WMD. Other reports I’ve seen said quite a number of Iranian engineers were also killed in the attacks.

How did America form such men and women?

Fr. Paul McNellis, SJ, philosophy professor at Boston College and Vietnam veteran Green Beret, posted the following at the Democracy Project. It’s a letter from an Army reserve chaplain, Maj. Jim Higgins, about an experience he had last May.

I recently attended a showing of “Spiderman 3” here at LSA Anaconda. We have a large auditorioum we use for movies as well as memorial services and other large gatherings. As is the custom back in the States, we stood and snapped to attention when the National Anthem began before the main feature. All was going as planned until about three-quarters of the way through the National Anthem the music stopped. Now, what would happen if this occurred with 1,000 18-22 year-olds back in the States? I imagine there would be hoots, catcalls, laughter, a few rude comments, and everyone would sit down and call for a movie. Of course, that is, if they had stood for the National Anthem in the first place.

Here, the 1,000 Soldiers continued to stand at attention, eyes fixed forward.

The music started again. The Soldiers continued to quietly stand at attention. And again, at the same point, the music stopped. What would you expect to happen? Even here I would imagine laughter as everyone sat down and expected the movie to start.

Here, you could have heard a pin drop. Every Soldier stood at attention. Suddenly there was a lone voice, then a dozen, and quickly the room was filled with the voices of a thousand Soldiers:

And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air,

gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.

O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,

o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

It was the most inspiring moment I have had here in Iraq. I wanted you to know what kind of Soldiers are serving you here.

They know what they’re over there for. Makes you proud that you have such men and women and serving you in the cause of freedom and defense.