Former US House of Representatives member and Democratic Party presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, speaking Wednesday with Bill Hemmer on Fox News, explained that “Christians, in effect, are receiving the blowback from the US war against Iraq,” and that further US intervention in that country is not the answer.
Kucinich elaborates that the US government’s invasion and occupation of Iraq starting in 2003 fueled the situation today with the Christian population of Iraq reduced by three-quarters. Kucinich explains that this population reduction arose in large part from Christians, along with people in other religious minorities, being “targeted by jihadists who did not have a presence in Iraq prior to the US invasion.”
Regarding ISIS’ persecution of Christians in Iraq, Kucinich, an RPI Advisory Board member, notes that ISIS has benefited from financial aid from the US and US “allies” including Saudi Arabia, as well as from US-supported training in Jordan. Kucinich additionally suggests that the US Congress should investigate possible ties between the US Central Intelligence Agency and ISIS.
Here is a sample of Kucinich’s analysis in the interview:
Well, if we’re concerned about ISIS waging genocide, then we should be concerned about the fact that the US government helped to fund jihadists who were wiping out Christians in Syria. I mean, the American people have to understand that these groups that are right now working inside of Iraq and in Syria have basically been supported with money from Saudi Arabia and resources from the United States. Some of them were trained in Jordan. And now they’re attacking Christians in Iraq. We have to change our international policy. Every occupation, every intervention, fuels an insurgency, and Christians are getting the blowback from this. We’ve got to look at what America does in helping to fuel these wars where Christians are the ones to take it in the neck.
Concerning US intervention in Iraq, Kucinich succinctly sums up his position, stating:
The United States should have never gone in in the first place, and us going back creates even more problems.
Watch the complete interview here:
