"Five years into this battle, there is an understandable debate over whether the war was worth fighting, whether the fight is worth winning, and whether we can win it," said Bush, a self declared evangelical Christian. "The answers are clear to me. Removing [Iraqi leader] Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision – and this is a fight America can and must win," he told an audience at the Defense Department in Washington.
Yet, five years on, Iraqi Christians are caught in the crossfire of violence – and even targeted – more than ever before, stressed Open Doors, an international organization providing aid to Christians who it says are persecuted for their faith.
"Some say that in the past few years almost 500 Iraqi Christians, including pastors and priests, have been murdered because of their faith. Even more Christians have been killed in attacks, in fighting or kidnappings for money, Open Doors said
In one of the latest publicized cases, the body of a Chaldean Catholic archbishop kidnapped in Iraq in February was found outside the northern city of Mosul.
COMPANIONS KILLED
Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho was seized by gunmen in Mosul soon after he left Mass on February. 29. Three of his companions were killed, the latest in what church members called a series of attacks against Iraq’s dwindling Christian community by Islamic extremists.
The violence is a far cry from what Iraqi Christians had anticipated, Open Doors stressed.
"Initially, the minority Christian population in Iraq was mostly elated with the fall of Saddam Hussein. They envisioned the coming of peace, safe places to work and live and complete freedom to worship." Many have now fled the country.
There were 750,000 Christians when the invasion began in Iraq, according to several church groups, although Open Doors put that figure at 550,000. Since 2003 however, at least 75,000 fled to neighboring countries or to the West, while another 75,000 are now in northern Iraq, the group added.
"That means less than 400,000 Christians remain in mainland Iraq. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has estimated that at least two million Iraqis have fled the country since 2003 and another two million are displaced inside the country.”
URGING PRAYERS
In a statement, Open Doors USA President Carl Moeller said his organization had urged supporters to pray for what he called "marginalized people of Iraq" and to “pray that 2008 will be the year when the violence will decrease and Christians will not be killed and kidnapped simply for their belief in Christ."
He said, "The situation continues to grow grimmer for the targeted minority Christian community in Iraq."
Despite the violence, Open Doors is one of the major providers of Bibles and Christian materials in Iraq, while also helping displaced Christians in northern Iraq, Syria and Jordan with housing, food, clothing and water. Iraqi Christians are no exception.
Some 200 million Christians worldwide, "suffer interrogation, arrest and even death for their faith in Christ, with another 200 to 400 million facing discrimination and alienation," Open Doors said, figures backed up by other rights organizations. (With BosNewsLife’s Stefan J. Bos).
