Michael Vick is more important. “Bipartisan effort pressures Obama to help Iraq’s Christians,” by Bridget Johnson for The Hill, December 25 (thanks to Axel):
Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill are fervently pressing the White House to stem mounting attacks on Christians in Iraq.
Fearful of fresh violence in Iraq, many of the oldest sects of Christianity in the ancient biblical land are planning low-key Christmas celebrations this year.
Since 2004, 40 Christian churches and institutions have been bombed, according to the Chaldean Assyrian Syriac Council of America, seven on the eve of Orthodox Christmas alone in 2007.
In a recent letter to President Obama, the group warned that the current situation “promises more innocent Christian blood in Iraq, more turmoil in that country, and more shame for America.”
Lawmakers hope they can steer the attention of the White House to the intensifying violence.
Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), the only Assyrian member of Congress and a close friend of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), remembers well listening to her grandparents’ stories of family members being slain or fleeing the region, as they did when they came to the United States.
“History is repeating itself,” the congresswoman somberly told The Hill….
Yes, and it will continue to do so, as long as people continue to believe in the doctrine of jihad.