Ah, Karrada: "Iraqi Christians pack churches for Christmas Mass despite violence"

[ProSense]

Iraqi Christians pack churches for Christmas Mass despite violence

BAGHDAD (AP) — Thousands of Iraqi Christians picked their way through checkpoints and along dusty streets lined with concrete blast walls, packing churches in Baghdad on Tuesday for Christmas Mass.

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"We did not celebrate last year, but this year we have security and we feel better," said Rasha Ghaban, one of many women at the small Church of the Holy Family in Karradah, a mainly Shiite district in downtown Baghdad where many Christians live. "We hope our future will be better, God willing."

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Cardinal Emmanuel III Delly, leader of the ancient Chaldean Catholic Church and Iraq's first cardinal, celebrated Mass before about 2,000 people in the Mar Eliya Church the eastern New Baghdad neighborhood of the capital.

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Bombers still attack city markets, police or army patrols and stores, and the dead bodies of tortured kidnap victims turn up almost daily along river banks or dumped on the streets.

Venturing out in large numbers late at night in Baghdad is still unthinkable, so the capital's Christians celebrated midnight Mass in the middle of the afternoon on Christmas Eve.

Delly, speaking to The Associated Press at his guarded compound in western Baghdad on Christmas Eve, said fear still pervaded everyday life, despite the fall in violence.

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Ah, Karrada

There was no midnight mass among Christians in Iraq again this year. Too dangerous.

The walls around Bush's Iraq strategy

[msongs]

1. what goes around comes around nt

[Sultana]

2. Bless their hearts nt

[ProSense]

3. RW mentality: offer up a photo as proof

http://bp1.blogger.com/_L6pDyjqqsvY/R3G3-r4wf3I/AAAAAAAAKCg/AlXlfwqXlrA/s400/shiite+tribal+leaders.jpg
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Why are there no women or children in that photo?

[Marrah_G]

4. They are in the back

Just because they are Christians doesn't mean they believe women are equal or have western values and traditions.

[ProSense]

5. True, it's one of the

Top Ten Myths about Iraq 2007:

6. Myth: The US overthrow of the Baath regime and military occupation of Iraq has helped liberate Iraqi women. Fact: Iraqi women have suffered significant reversals of status, ability to circulate freely, and economic situation under the Bush administration.

Iraqi policewomen are told to surrender their weapons

[KharmaTrain]

6. False Security In A Power Vacuum

I see this "lull" as a breather...as the partision of Baghdad has occured and both sides are stocking up on US weapons for the next round...with US forces caught in the middle. And with them will be the Christians and our other proxies. I saw one of the CNN pieces on the Iraqi Christians and it was briefly mentioned how many had left the country...but where? They sure aren't coming here and I don't suspect they're very welcome among the thousands of other refugees in Jordan and Syria. I felt an omninous, not an optimistic tone in this report.

But that's par for the course with most American corporate media in Iraq...the only stories they can file are the ones they can safely report. This generally means being embedded with a miliatary unit and the access they have are restricted. It's too dangerous to do any real journalism there and this is what could rise up and "surprise" Americans as we wake up to an Iraqi Tet offensive/rebellion.