DownshoreDrift

Some friends of ours had an Iraqi friend over for a couple of weeks and we got to meet her. She and her husband are Chaldeans from Ninevah--raised Orthodox but now believers. Their family moved to the north to work with the Kurds. Part of her story is here:
http://torainfor.livejournal.com/162847.html

The middle and upper classes are leaving. The culture is one of suspicion, little regard for integrity, little personal accountability, and it's fed by the radical Islamic leaders who assign blame and preach violence without any real solution. They play to emotions and say what angry, tired, abused people want to hear. "Bashir" says, "It takes 10 years before you can have a respectful conversation with a Muslim."

There are two authorities: the government and the Islamic culture. People can rest in the law if it is stronger than the mosque. I'm in awe of the people who choose to go into government in Iraq, knowing their peers are being assassinated weekly.

If we just want peace, I think the answer's financial. Get people jobs. Throw them into capitalism like Dubai. If we want to teach them to respect life, be kind to each other, be honest, it's going to take a long, long time and tremendous sacrifice (time, money, lives). It'll take God, obviously, because it may be getting too late for our culture to teach another too many virtues.

In fact, I don't think the US government can do it. But the church just might be able to.