November 6, 2019

Thanks to the intervention of Vice President Mike Pence, aid is beginning to flow to the besieged Christian communities of the Middle East. The Christian population of Iraq has been in steady decline for many years, but has plummeted over the past decade. Christians in both Iraq and Syria were viciously targeted by the fanatics of the Islamic state who sought their complete extermination. Without outside help, these communities may soon become extinct; though they represent some of the oldest Christian communities on earth, having been directly founded by the Apostle Thomas.

Despite their deep and widespread suffering at the hands of ISIS, aid agencies from the UN and United States were slow to respond. Obama Administration officials were especially worried about being seen as “favoring” the Christians and so aid continued to flow to major population centers where local discrimination against these suffering people remained unrelenting.

In yet another example of the overflowing resentment by the administrative state, many Obama-era officials are fighting the new direction instituted by the Trump administration. Yeganeh Torbati laments: “Decisions about U.S. aid are often no longer being governed by career professionals applying a rigorous review of applicants and their capabilities,” implying, of course, that these professionals know better than the officials elected by the people.

In her long article for ProPublica, Ms. Torbati attempts to make the case that the Trump administration is acting against the guidelines of USAID by favoring the persecuted minorities in the Middle East and that those actions may even be unconstitutional. She describes the Trump administration’s actions as “meddling,” as though the administration has no right to alter the policy of its predecessor. Furthermore, she implies that administration concern for these oppressed people is mere pandering to President Trump’s evangelical base!

The reader should also be aware that Ms. Torbati was a staunch supporter of President Obama’s disastrous Iran deal and has opposed President Trump’s foreign policy at every opportunity.

“This attack on the administration follows a pattern of insidious attacks mounted by Obama holdovers aiming to derail Trump’s policies,” said AMCD co-chair, John Hajjar. “They are not simply disagreeing with policy, which they have every right to do; they are attempting to undermine policy from within the administration.”

“The deep state has been especially active in trying to undermine the President’s policy on Iran,” added AMCD vice-chair, Hossein Khorram. “They leak damaging information and do everything they can in an effort to thwart those appointed by the President and to prevent those appointees from successfully carrying out the President’s policies. It’s a disgrace!”

“It’s unbelievable to me that anyone could actually be against helping the Christians of the Middle East,” continued AMCD co-chair, Tom Harb. “However, it seems there are those who will oppose the President on everything, no matter what the consequences are. The Christians of the Middle East are suffering. All people of good conscience should support our efforts to help them.”

While the AMCD fully supports the Trump-Pence policy of aiding Middle East Christians, it calls for directing aid to field projects such as frontline municipalities, the training of police, and helping to establish minority ethnic schools. Let the UN and general humanitarian aid, including aid from churches, go to general institutions and let US aid be specific to the survival of these beleaguered minorities. We need to maintain these communities on their lands as a priority.