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Via the Corner, President Bush does an interview with ETWN, the Global Catholic Network. The interviewer says the Pope, when visiting the US this week, will raise the issue of Iraqi Christians:
Q What can we tangibly do? What can the administration tangibly plead with the Iraqi government to do to protect this fledgling minority? Is there anything we can do --Actually, it's going to be difficult to protect Christians in Iraq because there aren't many left. Less than one-third of the 1.5 million-strong community that existed before the US invasion in 2003 remains. The rest have fled, mostly to other parts of the Middle East but also to asylum-friendly countries like Sweden, Germany, etc. One place where Iraqi Christians haven't found a home is America -- only 819 Iraqis have been granted asylum in 2008, Christians included. Permitting more refugees into the country might do more to help Iraqi Christians than keeping troops in their country, but, then that would be one fewer reason to keep the war going, wouldn't it?THE PRESIDENT: Well, one thing we can do is to keep our troops there long enough to have a civil society emerge, and go after them, and go after these killers, and bring them to justice so they quit killing people, including our own troops, because this is a war.
--Jordan Michael Smith
