compared the fighting in Iraq with the Vietnam War, shortly after dozens of people were killed in suicide attacks.
The White House so far resisted drawing comparisons between the fighting in Iraq and the Vietnam War, but during an interview with the American ABC television network, Bush acknowledged a newspaper column by New York Times journalist Thomas Friedman, who compared the recent spike in violence in Iraq to the Vietnam-era Tet offensive.
"He could be right," Bush said. "There certainly is a stepped-up level of violence, and we are heading into an election." The Tet offensive is widely considered to be the turning point of the Vietnam War. While Communist forces ultimately lost the Tet offensive, they won a propaganda victory that prompted Americans to lose support for the conflict, observers said.
It came as Adventist Christians in the region said Thursday, October 19, that civil unrest in Iraq, home to the cities of Nineveh, ancient Babylon, Ur of the Chaldees, and even the Biblical Garden of Eden, "is taking a toll on the already-small Christian community."
CHRISTIANS LEAVING
Many Christians who can leave the country "are continuing to do so in the face of daily terrorism," said the Adventist Press Service. Iraqi police said that a string of bombings and suicide attacks Thursday, October 19, killed over 40 people across the country.
A bomb blast in the town of Khakis, north of Baghdad, killed at least 10 people and wounded more than 20 others, while suicide attacks in the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul killed at least 23, police and news reports said.
Fighting also erupted in several locations across Baghdad, killing at least eight people, including four policemen. In published statements, the US military said 13 American troops were killed on Tuesday and Wednesday in Iraq, raising the total to 71 this month alone.
The violence is also increasingly directed against Christians, church leaders and rights groups confirmed. "Yes, some members from our church are still leaving [Iraq]," said Pastor Basim Fargo, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Iraq, in a statement distributed by the Adventist News Network (ANN), Thursday, October 19.
POOR BEHIND
"Of course, those who are leaving are [educated], well-to-do; those who are staying are poor people who cannot afford to leave," he added.
Fargo said there are now about 75 adult Adventist church members in Iraq, down from around 150 before the 2003 US-led invasion and subsequent domestic disturbances. He spoke by telephone with ANN following an October 17 New York Times report documenting a general departure of Christians from Iraq.
According to the New York Times newspaper report, the total number of Christians in Iraq is unclear: a 1987 census–the last conducted–listed 1.4 million Christians; today, estimates range between 600,000 and 800,000.
Iraq’s Christians have come under increased pressure following comments made by Pope Benedict XVI, in which he questioned the concept of ‘holy war’ in Islam. "This ignited a fire in the country. Most people go by tradition [in their religion]. When things like this happen, it affects them very badly," Fargo reportedly said.
BEHEADED CLERGYMAN
In recent weeks, bombed churches, a beheaded clergyman, and the massacre of 13 women and girls were among the most extreme acts of violence carried out against Christians across Iraq, reported US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
A particularly vulnerable group are Christian owners of liquor stores, which Muslim militants disdain and frequently firebomb. "Today we are specifically targeted," Pascale Warda, an Assyrian Christian and former minister in the Iraqi transitional government told RFE/RL
"Why we are targeted, we don’t know. All Iraqis are targeted, yes, but today, Christian Assyrian, [one of the] original peoples of Mesopotamia, of Iraq, are, like [other] minorities, in a very sensitive situation." (With BosNewsLife Monitoring, BosNewsLife Research and reports from Iraq).
