...or maybe not

So much for having hope. It was nice while it lasted. One more from the December 24 The Independent.

This is not a happy Christmas for [Iraq's] troubled Christians. Many of the churches have cancelled midnight mass for fear of drawing the attention of terrorists.

After decades of living in relative harmony with the Muslim majority, Iraq's ancient Christian minority­ who include Chaldeans, with allegiance to the Pope, as well as Orthodox Assyrians and Armenians­ is threatened as never before.

A spate of bombings directed at churches, apparently the work of Muslim extremists, has led many to the painful conclusion that Christians are now equated with the US-led occupation regardless of their actual views. They insist that they are Arab nationalists who oppose the American presence just as much as resistance fighters in Fallujah or Mosul. One in 10 Iraqi Christians has fled Iraq.

Five Baghdad churches were attacked in October. In August, similar attacks killed at least 10 and wounded nearly 50 Iraqi Christians.

More and more the attacks are not against occupation forces. They are against other Iraqis. More and more, the attacks are drawn from the old lie "if you are not with us, you are against us" - they cry of every dictator down through the ages. More and more, this is civil war.