President Barack Obama has done little to stop the terrorist militias of the so-called Islamic State from abducting and murdering Christians in Iraq and elsewhere in the region. As a junior U.S. Senator from Illinois, however, Obama was outspoken on the fate of minorities in Iraq. Obama wrote two letters to then-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, demanding to know what the Bush administration was doing to secure Assyrian Christians and other minorities in Iraq.
Then-Sen. Obama used the issue as a cudgel against the Bush administration in arguing against its strategy in Iraq, as well as to cultivate favor among Assyrian constituents back home, one of whom provided copies of Obama’s letters to Breitbart News. Sen. Obama was not shy about advertising his criticism of the Bush administration on the fate of non-Muslims in Iraq: he ostentatiously introduced both letters into the Congressional Record in the midst of his presidential campaign.
Obama listed threats facing “Catholic Chaldeans, Syriac Orthodox, Assyrian, Armenian and Protestant Christians, as well as smaller Yazidi and Sabean Mandaean communities.” He added, “These crises demand an urgent response from our Government,” and added that “severe violations of religious freedom faced by members of these indigenous communities, and their potential extinction from their ancient homeland, is deeply alarming in light of our mission to bring freedom to the Iraqi people.”
A member of Chicago’s Assyrian community commented to Breitbart News that Obama’s reaction to the genocide carried out by ISIS/ISIL had been “just words.” He added: “Why are the world leaders sleeping as a genocide is happening? You know ISIS threatens the world, so why not deal with the problem. When President Obama was our Senator here in Illinois. He was an advocate for us. he sent letters to then Secretary Rice to find a solution. Why has he ignored us?”
Senior Editor-at-Large Joel B. Pollak edits Breitbart California and is the author of the new ebook, Wacko Birds: The Fall (and Rise) of the Tea Party, available for Amazon Kindle.
Follow Joel on Twitter: @joelpollak