Let's consider for a moment the question whether America is in fact a Crusader occupier.

America occupied Japan for more than half a century. How many Japanese were forced to convert to Christianity by the Crusader American occupier? Well, it couldn't have been many, there are fewer than 0.7% Christians in Japan now - not much different than in 1945 [CIA Japan].

The problem in Iraq is that America is not a true occupying force. The right thing to do in Iraq is what Kemal Ataturk did in Turkey back in 1923: depoliticize Islam; that is, to forbid clerics from interfering in politics. Unfortunately our leaders still think Islam is a peaceful religion and that the violence is caused by extremists. Our government fails to realize that it is Political Islam itself that is the root cause of violence and that you cannot have democracy and Islam together. A democratic Islamic nation will only lead to a Muslim-only nation (3).

So despite complaints that America is occupying Iraq, we are hardly occupying the country at all. If Democrats, instead of conspiring with our enemies to make the war in Iraq a failure, had instead supported our President perhaps we would have had the testicles (and support back home) to tell the Iraqis that they would have to form a secular government. An Islamic Democracy is a contradiction in terms.

Notes

(1):

MEMRI, The Plight of Iraqi Christians

In August 2004, five churches, one in Baghdad and four in Mosul, were hit in one day, in a coordinated attack that killed 12 people. In October, five churches in Baghdad were hit on the first day of the Muslim month of Ramadan. In November, eight people were killed in two church bombings. The August attack on churches was followed on September 10 by mortar attacks against the Assyrian town in Bakhdeda (also referred to as Qarqosh ) in the Ninevah Governorate in northern Iraq.

(2):

Bettnet.com, Iraqi Muslims: Christians, come home

Today, Muslims mostly filled the front pews of St John’s. Muslims who want their Christian friends and neighbors to come home. The Christians who might see these photos likely will recognize their friends here. The Muslims in this neighborhood worry that other people will take the homes of their Christian neighbors, and that the Christians will never come back. And so they came to St John’s today in force, and they showed their faces, and they said, “Come back to Iraq. Come home.” They wanted the cameras to catch it. They wanted to spread the word: Come home. Muslims keep telling me to get it on the news. “Tell the Christians to come home to their country Iraq.

(3):

WorldNetDaily, 17 Jan 2004, Iraqi Muslims: Stop attacks on Christians

A British-based persecution watchdog, Barnabas Fund, reported Iraqi church leaders say Christians have received death threats, causing many to flee the southern city of Basra, and point to a missile attack against a convent in October.

Shi'as are "terrorizing of our Christian brothers," said Barnabas, which distributed the statement from the 200 leaders.

The Iraqi leaders' statement also urged Islamic religious leaders to issue fatwas forbidding such "atrocious crimes against humanity and the [Christian] religion."

"Christians have lived in Iraq for 2,000 years and contributed greatly to the region's civilization, both before and after the coming of Islam," noted Barnabas.

The new head of the Chaldean Church, Patriarch Emmanuel III, said Muslims and Christians had lived side by side for "countless years in love and charity," but they now were attacked by extremists from Saudi Arabia and Iran, ASSIST reported.

Church officials say U.S. intervention is the only way to prevent legislation that would establish Islamic law, which would cause even more suffering for Christians.