God truly does work in mysterious ways…and you can read about it in today’s Washington Times:
…Kurds are converting to Christianity “by the hundreds” in northern Iraq.
In a month that has already seen 51 US casualties, along with the deaths of nearly 800 Iraqi security forces and civilians, it’s good to see that there is real progress in Iraq. Apparently George Bush knew what he was talking about yesterday when he said the Iraqi people were “blessed,” because learning that perhaps “hundreds” of Kurds have converted to Christianity certainly makes the untold thousands of deaths, the devastation and the billions of dollars spent all seem worthwhile.
However, it should be pointed out that the source for this “good news” is Georges Sada, the man who revealed that the WMD existed and were shipped to Syria…
Finding ways to report good news from Iraq brings to mind the expression, “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.” And judging from this article, the Washington Times’ lemonade stand is open for business. How else can you explain why an article, headlined Good News From Northern Iraq, about the alleged conversion of “hundreds” in a overwhelmingly Muslim country, was ever written?
In this thinly veiled and pitifully desperate attempt to cheer for the Bush administration’s war, the Washington Times reports that, according to Sada:
The “good news” from Iraq’s turbulent religious scene, consisting mainly of Sunni and Shi’ite Muslim militias battling each other, is from the Kurds, he said. Kurds are creating a constitution that does away with Shariah, or Islamic law, a move counter to trends in other Muslim countries such as Afghanistan and Iran, where leaving Islam is a capital offense and Christian converts are often killed.
Portraying Kurdistan as a peaceful oasis of reason and religious tolerance might seem believable until you remember this:
KIRKUK, Iraq — Hundreds of Shiite Muslim militiamen have deployed in recent weeks to this restive city —
In a meeting here last week, Sadr’s representative in the city, Abdul Karim Khalifa, told U.S. officials that more armed loyalists were on the way and that as many as 7,000 to 10,000 Shiite residents were prepared to fight alongside the Mahdi Army if called upon.
Or this:
Kurdish leaders have inserted more than 10,000 of their militia members into Iraqi army divisions in northern Iraq…
The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga – the Kurdish militia – and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn’t hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted.
And apparently Mr. Sada and the Washington Times missed Bush’s speech yesterday where he said:
Although Iraq’s new leaders come from many different ethnic and religious communities, they’ve made clear they will govern as Iraqis. They know that the strategy of the terrorists and the insurgents is to divide Iraq along sectarian lines. And the only way the enemy will be defeated is if they stand and act as one.
If indeed the Kurds are writing their own Constitution, according to the words of George W. Bush, the enemy will never be defeated.
But never mind all that because we have “hundreds” of new Christians in the world, and really, doesn’t that alone justify the Iraq War? Who would question the reliability of Georges Sada, the man who claimed:
The chemical and biological weapons were available in Iraq before liberating the country, but Saddam Hussein took the advantage of a natural disaster that happened in Syria when a dam was collapsed and many villages were flooded. So Saddam Hussein took that cover and declared to the world that he is going to use the civilian aircraft for an air bridge to help Syria with blankets, food and fuel oil, and other humanitarian things, but that was not true. The truth is he converted two regular passenger civilian aircraft, 747 Jumbo and 727 . . . all the weapons of mass destruction were put there by the special Republican Guards in a very secret way, and they were transported to Syria, to Damascus, by flying 56 flights to Damascus. . . . In addition . . . also a truck convoy on the ground to take whatever has to do with WMD to Syria.
So there you have it. According to Mr. Sada, the WMD were there until Saddam moved them to Syria under the guise of supplying humanitarian relief.
And while the vindication of George W. Bush’s original rationale for war must be very satisfying for the Washington Times and other administration supporters, the knowledge that The American Red Cross conspired with Saddam must be very disturbing for them. Because after all, when the dam collapse in Syria cited by Mr. Sada as the cover for moving WMD happened, they did report that:
A tent warehouse was established to receive assistance coming from the Red Crescent in Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, Tunisia and Iraq. […]
Governments from Japan, Iraq, Italy, Algeria, Morocco and Saudi Arabia contributed everything from pharmaceuticals and surgeons to food and blankets.
But who are you going to believe? The American Red Cross and other reports on relief efforts or Georges Sada? He was the one connected the dots when:
…the Jordanian intelligence reported foiling an al Qaeda plot to unleash 17.5 tons of explosives, including sarin nerve gas, in downtown Amman, that he decided to go public with what he knew.
“I thought, ‘Wait a minute,’?” he recalls. “The weapons must have fallen into the hands of terrorists.”
Leave it to the Washington Times to repeat this drivel unchallenged when it is known that:
U.S. intelligence officials expressed caution about whether the chemicals captured by Jordanian authorities were intended to create a “toxic cloud” chemical weapon, but they said the large quantities involved were at a minimum intended to create “massive explosions.”
At issue is the presence of a large quantity of sulfuric acid among the tons of chemicals seized by Jordanian authorities. Sulfuric acid can be used as a blister agent, but it more commonly can increase the size of conventional explosions, according to U.S. officials.
But never mind all that…there are hundreds of new Christians in Iraq. Freedom is on the march.
Crossposted at ePluribus Media and Daily Kos