Christian boy murdered

Another horrible atrocity in Iraq. This time against a young Christian boy. From WND:

A website in Assyria is confirming that a 14-year-old Christian boy who was working a 12-hour shift maintaining an electric generator has been murdered by Muslim insurgents.

The Assyrian International News Agency said the tragedy was reported by an Assyrian language web page at http://www.ankawa.com./

The youth was identified as Ayad Tariq, who lived in Baqouba, Iraq, and was at work on Oct. 21 when a group of "disguised Muslim insurgents" went into the power plant shortly after his shift began at 6 a.m.

The website reported the insurgents asked him for his identification and, according to other witnesses who hid and stayed alive to report on the attack, questioned his identification card's reference to him as a "Christian."

Are you truly a "Christian sinner," they asked.

"Yes, I am Christian but I am not a sinner," he replied.

The insurgents then called him a "dirty Christian sinner," grabbed his limbs and held them while beheading him, the witnesses reported.

[...]

Current estimates are that there are about 2.5 million Assyrian Christians in Iraq.

Kenneth Scott LaTourette wrote in "A History of Christianity" that the Assyrian Christians became the first nation to accept Christianity, and one of the largest missionary-sending peoples in Christian history.

"The Assyrian Christians are one of the last remaining Christian communities in the Middle East," said Rev. Ken Joseph Jr., of the Assyrian Christians organization.

Tens of thousands of Assyrian Christians have fled their traditional homelands in recent months, officials confirmed.

Now I suppose there are two ways to look at this. The first is to say, "My God, that poor boy was the same age as my little brother." With that in mind, I suppose I could say that this is just horrific. Then I could ask, "Is this what we're fighting for? A people that would behead a 14 year-old boy because of his views? Isn't this enough? There's no way that people like that are deserving of any more of the blood of our soldiers. There is no hope for a nation that would routinely allow this to happen. This can no longer be our find.

Indeed this was my first reaction--how can we allow our troops to fight and die any longer for people like this, but looking at things through those lenses is reactionary. We cannot allow that actions of the terrorists--which is what these folks were, cold blooded, murdering terrorist monsters--to dictate our continuation of this mission. Yes, I know, that sounded like something straight out of a Bush speech, but it is the exact and definite truth. It is the simple fact.

Instead of seeing the abusers as the ones for which we are fighting, we have to identify with the abused. If we pull out, atrocities like this one will worsen in severity and frequency, neither of which is an acceptable outcome of a pullout by US authorities. For this brave young man, we must continue the fight. We cannot allow the terrorists to dictate our action. In the face of tragedy such as this, we cannot simply turn our tails and flee. To the contrary, in the face of such tragedy is exactly when we must strengthen our resolve. This should be a rallying point for Christians, whose brothers are being persecuted, and Americans, who should be highly concerned with the proliferation of one of the greatest American rights--freedom to worship as we please.

In Sean Hannity's TV interview with Bush last night, he asked the President if this was a war between good and evil. Mr. Bush said he thought it was. And it is. We cannot allow evil to triumph over good. It is just that simple.