syberghost

I just watched a fascinating, but all too brief, interview with Rev. Ken Joseph Jr., an Assyrian Christian whose parents escaped Iraq in 1917, and later answered the call to help rebuild Japan. Rev. Joseph has lived in Japan all his life, where he operates a successful 24-hour helpline and relief organization, serves as director of the Keikyo Institute, which studies the history of Christianity in Asia, and writes a lot of books.

During the process that led up to the war in Iraq, Rev. Joseph was very vocal against the war on his radio program, and participated in demonstrations against it in Japan. He saw it as an unjust war against the people of Iraq, which were after all HIS people. He was so adamant in this position that he in fact became a human shield, in the hopes of dissuading President Bush and the coalition from invading.

Rev. Joseph then told the story, which is further elucidated in the link above, of how his ideals crashed headlong into the desires of a people desperate to be rid of Saddam Hussein, who were in fact so desperate that, according to the Fox News interview I just watched, some actually told him that if the Americans didn't come soon, they would commit suicide.

In fact, the sentiment in favor of the war was so widespread that when Rev. Joseph was crossing the border to leave, his pockets full of videotapes of Iraqis telling their pro-war story (which you curiously haven't seen in the mainstream media), the border guard who patted him down and took all these tapes, instead of arresting Rev. Joseph, he gave all the tapes back in a silent cry for help, one that had been practically a theme during Rev. Joseph's stay.

Now, as Iraqis have what is reported to be in excess of 72% voter turnout in an election that liberals in the US have tried to prevent happening with nearly as much fervor as the Al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists in Iraq, and in which the response to scattered attempts at violence has been to walk over the victims and continue into the polling place, Rev. Joseph is busy working on his ninth book, with a simple title that so many liberals in America can't seem to bring themselves to utter: I Was Wrong.