For the past several months, I've traveled extensively throughout the Middle East and have sat down with numerous Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with some Syrian Christians who discussed the situation in their nation in great detail.
Today, as I read the news that the United States is considering launching an attack on Bashar al-Assad's regime, I am deeply, deeply grieved.
I want to be as clear as I possibly can: If the United States and Britain carry out an attack on the Assad regime, they will be effectively handing the country and people of Syria over to one of the most unarguably evil, vile and murderous groups in the world. Jabhat al-Nusra, or "the rebels" as they are most often simply referred to in the Western media, are an al-Qaida affiliated group. They would be the ones benefiting from our actions. If Jabhat al-Nusra is successful in Syria, not only will tens of thousands of Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical Christians be slaughtered, but also Alawite, Druze, Shia and even moderate Sunni Muslims will be be summarily executed all across the country. The testimony throughout Syria is consistent – while Assad is a typical Middle Eastern dictator, the so-called rebels are evil, heartless thugs who will kill anyone who is not one of them, or who does not bow to their radical Islamist agenda.
Within the country, over the past year alone, al-Nusra has kidnapped tens of thousands of women and children for their own perverted sexual pleasures. In fact, a prominent Sunni imam in Syria issued a fatwa declaring that it is permissible within Islamic jurisprudence to simply take any woman the jihadis choose, including young girls as young as 3 years old. And it has been happening.
If we attack Assad and al-Nusra is successful, their goal is to divide the country into sections so as to establish a radical Islamic beachhead or caliphate. They have openly declared this to be their goal.
In retrospect today, there are few Americans who still believe that the American war in Iraq was a good idea. And it certainly has not produced the great benefits that were initially expected by the Bush administration. In fact, most would be willing to admit that the Iraq war was perhaps the greatest mistake of the Bush administration. And as a result of this "mistake," hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians no longer have a country.
Now, if the Obama administration goes forward with its stated plans to attack Assad, it will be the greatest mistake this nation has made in decades. Not only will we have the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocents on our hands, but we will subsequently be forced to deal with the utter chaos that results from our actions. I'm appealing to everyone who reads this to stop right now and pray that the U.S. and Britain do not go forward with military action in Syria.
Now, many will ask about the recent release of nerve gas in Damascus. Let me begin by asking if we really are this gullible. It has become obvious that the radicals know us far better than we know them. We've all seen the manufactured-victim show a dozen times in the media coming out of the Palestinian territories or Iraq and even in Syria. They lie on stretchers groaning, covered in goat blood. Or they carry around the same dead infant for hours for the Western media to capture. And we here in the West demand that action be taken immediately. Sadly, it is an easy game. And this is exactly what is happening right now. If anyone believes for one second that Bashar al-Assad, a typical Middle Eastern dictator/survivor, was truly dumb enough to cross the red line and gas hundreds of people in full view of the world, then we truly are a stupid people. The war being fought in Syria is a propaganda war. Wake up and use a little bit of healthy skepticism before we start launching missiles!
I do not want to be misunderstood. Assad is not a shining gem of morality. Minority groups in Syria often were unfairly treated under his regime. But what is needed right now is some proper perspective. As my Syrian friends were quick to state, "Of course, we prefer the boot of the Assad regime on our necks, to the sword of al-Nusra." But they were quick to say that under Assad, most minority groups were generally treated well. They experienced a certain level of prosperity and freedom for many years. But under the al-Qaida thugs the Obama administration appears to be supporting, the country will descend into an abyss of bloodshed and will become another Islamist hell-hole, courtesy of the USA. Let's not let this happen.
I am asking everyone to call their elected representatives to demand of the president that we do not attack Syria. Demand that we stand down. The Obama administration has consistently been on the wrong side of every conflict in the Middle East. Tell the president that it is time to stop listening to the policymaking Muslim Brotherhood plants in his own government and the Islamist Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey. Demand that he start listening to the peaceful and moderate peoples of the world and not the dictator of Istanbul. If the president doesn't stop his reckless buffoonery in the Middle East, then the blood on his hands will truly bring a curse onto this nation.
Please, pray for Syria!