Eric Bolling and Franklin Graham are very, very concerned about the Christians living in Iraq now that President Obama is in command. When it was George W. Bush, not so much.
Graham's knowledge of the history of Iraq appears to be limited to years beginning January 21, 2009 and beyond.
First, the 'secret Muslim' trope. "His stepfather was a Muslim, he went to Muslim schools growing up, his impressions as a young man came from Islam," Graham said.
Sigh. Red meat for the Fox audience.
Eric Bolling then asked Graham if Obama "made a mistake pulling troops out of Iraq too soon." You know, if I want an actual factual answer to something military, I might ask someone in the military. Graham's a preacher, not a military strategist. But get a load of the answer.
"No question," Graham answered. "The military commanders told him not to do it...Now we have a mess on our hands and the President and his policies are responsible for this."
My entire reason for highlighting Graham's nonsense is to push back on that one claim. If we had not invaded a sovereign country, and subsequently stripped that country's military of all power, causing that highly trained military to form a highly effective insurgency, there would have been no damn war to be gabbling on about today. So for the love of God, Franklin, get your damned facts straight.
I did a Google news search on the terms "Franklin Graham" and Iraqi Christians, limited to 2002-2008. Guess what I found?
Nothing. Not a word of worry about the danger Iraqi Christians were in while we were dropping bombs on their country and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians. Not. one. word.
"I'm afraid that the United States is going to have to put troops back into Iraq, which I would hate to see," declared Graham. And with that, we see Fox News laying the neocon foundation so they can make the case to restart the war in Iraq. Because Christians. Christians they didn't give one damn about in 2003.
Graham went into a bit of a sermon after that. "As a Christian, I want to emulate Christ, I want to follow Christ, and I want to do good to all men," he insisted, as he went on to slam a large chunk of the world's population. "But Islam -- the Muslims want to emulate their prophet Mohammed. Mohammed raped, he murdered, he killed and so we're seeing the followers of Islam emulate the prophet Mohammed."
With that, Graham pronounced American Muslims as a grave danger to society. "It's not just the Muslims in the Middle East. We have to be careful of the Muslims in this country. We need to stop the immigration...of Muslims coming to this country from countries that have active terrorist cells."
Which would basically be the countries where we don't allow immigration now?
Graham wrapped it up by warning Fox viewers that "sooner or later we are going to see a terrorist attack on one of our theaters, one of our schools or synagogues..."
Here's a couple of reminders for Franklin Graham.
Sandy Hook, Connecticut -- An elementary school.
Aurora, Colorado - A movie theater.
People murdered and maimed in public, just like a terrorist attack. Except in both cases, the shooters weren't Muslim.
Any persecution is wrong. I only wish Franklin Graham had the compassion to be as passionate about the persecution of Palestinians and other groups around the world who are routinely oppressed for any number of reasons by people who aren't Muslim. Or is it just as simple as race for him?